Against All Odds
by Timore Nocturnus Caelum
Summary: Everybody hated him. His father considered him a let down, often neglecting him. But he would be the catalyst for change when he befriended the one thing they were supposed to kill. HTTYD from Hiccup's POV. Reviews are appreciated.
1. I Hit It!

Hi, guys. I know that people all over Fanfiction are currently working on novelizing the entire movie, so this idea of writing the story in Hiccup's point of view (or perspective, depends on what you want) is not the most original.

Anyways, this fic was born out of boredom. I just switched on my computer and started working on novelizing the entire movie in Hiccup's point of view (such that I could add in his thoughts and feelings along the way). It took me quite a while to get this done. This is my first attempt at a fic, so it might not be top notch.

**Disclaimer: **What can a 14-year-old kid do with this fic? Make millions of dollars out of it? I think not.

So, here is the story of a little Viking who wants so desperately to prove himself to his tribe. But then, on one fateful night (and day) he shot an elusive Night Fury out of the sky and that changed his life, and the life of his tribe, forever.

Read, but most importantly, **_enjoy_**.

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Chapter 1: I Hit It!

This is Berk.

It is twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It is located solidly on the 'Meridian of Misery'. But it is here that we have a place to call home. We live in a small fishing village to the south of the island. Life here is great, although it can get very cold during the winter seasons. The village has been here for seven generations yet every single building is new. Why? You'll find out later. Anyway, our recreational activities include fishing, hunting and dancing. We also happen to have a magnificent view of the sunset. The only problems here are the pests. You see, while most places have mice or mosquitoes. We have…

_Dragons_.

I narrowly missed being scorched to death by a blast of fire. There you have it. That is the reason our village has constant renovation schemes. Dragons have been plaguing our island for the last three hundred years. Their fiery breath makes it difficult for us to maintain our wooden houses. Yeah, I know what you are going to say. Why not just leave the island and find another place to settle down? Well, we're Vikings. And we have some major stubbornness issues. Oh, and by the way, my name is Hiccup. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The Third. Brilliant name, huh? But it is not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will scare off gnomes and trolls. I have always been considered the village idiot due to my size. Well, all Vikings on this island are big and stocky with a muscular outlook. Me? A bony, meatless, sarcastic geek. I was the first bony 'Viking', which made me pretty much a laughing stock. Anyways, our village is currently under attack from dragons. And did I tell you I was a blacksmith's apprentice? I guess not. In state of full-scale pandemonium emergencies like this, blacksmiths are usually very busy. So I am guessing that my master was going to need me.

I burst out of my house through the front door and was met with complete chaos. People were running helter-skelter in every direction. The dragons clouded the sky and were shooting bursts of flame occasionally. The dragon-fighting Vikings were doing damage control, firing catapults at the swarm of dragons. Some of them got engaged in close-quarter combats with the dragons. As I made my way down the winding path leading to the forge, I got blown sideways by the force of an explosion somewhere nearby. A Viking pounced on me and let out a war cry. Then, he stopped abruptly and greeted me,

'Morning!'

Ain't that charming?

I crossed the bridge and was met by a surge of Vikings. A few of them looked at me and let out a disapproving snort. Some just shook their heads and went on with their business. But most of them just said, 'Get back inside, Hiccup. You are not supposed to be out here.'

That is the problem with being the village runt. Most people will dismiss you based on your looks. Only a few people will sympathize with you, and I'm telling you that I do not have many sympathizers.

Then, just as I turned a bend, someone grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and lifted me up into the air. A gruff voice said,

'Hiccup! What is he doing…' he recognized my facial features and changed mid-sentence. 'What are you doing out? Get inside!'

The man flung me aside. Landing on my rear, I got up and turned around to see who had flung me out of his arms. He donned a coat of elaborately designed armor. The villagers call him Stoick the Vast. He is the chief of the tribe and an expert dragon fighter. He had a small round face with a very long beard (very long indeed), his arms were huge and chunky. A blow from one of those could knock out a full grown dragon. They say that when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean off its shoulders. Do I believe it? Yes, I do. How I wish I could be like him. But too bad I wasn't gifted with physical prowess. I ran up the last flight of steps and arrived at the forge at last. There was a long queue of Vikings waiting to get their weapons sharpened. I entered through the back door and saw that my master was already there, no big surprise. He spends half of the day (every day) at the forge sharpening swords, making new weapons. He saw me come in and greeted me with the same old greeting I get every time during a dragon attack.

'Oh, nice of you to join the party, Hiccup. I thought you've been carried off.'

They say that self-praise is the worst thing one could do. But at that moment, it did not really matter to me.

'Who? Me? No, come on, I am _waayyy_ too muscular for their taste.' I said as I lifted an iron mallet onto its rack on the wooden shelf. 'They wouldn't know what to do with all… _this_.' I continued, flexing my arms.

'Well, they'll need toothpicks, don't they?' Gobber said scornfully.

The blacksmith with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber the Belch, my master. I have been his apprentice ever since I was little. Well, littl_er_. I continued my job of sharpening the pile of weaponry that was currently piled up on the counter. Looking out of the window, I could get a clear view of the ongoing battle. A firestorm was engulfing the west sector of the village. Old village, lots and lots of new houses. Am I right? That's what happens when you live in a wooden village where it gets raided almost every single night by fire-breathing dragons.

If I weren't so puny, I would have a chance to join the junior dragon-fighting league. Oh, did I tell you about them? They are a group of youngsters about my age (but bigger than me in terms of size) that will participate in the defence of our island during times like these. Their job is _so_ much cooler than mine. Ah, there they are, the ones wielding buckets of water and putting out the fires. The obese one with a cute-looking face is called Fishlegs Ingerman. He and I are best friends. The only major difference between us is that when he stands beside me, he'd make me look like a pathetic worm.

The two blonde Vikings are called the Thorstons, better known as Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Since they are both thin, I have no idea how they were able to get the dragon-fighting job while I was stuck in a pathetic forge forging pathetic weapons… Okay, maybe the weapons aren't that pathetic but after being a blacksmith's apprentice for seven years, you would have forged every type of weapon that ever existed, so if you have been doing this for years and you are still making the same weapons over and over again, you'll feel bored, won't you? You get the idea, right?

The not so fat and not so thin Viking with blue eyes is called Snotlout Jorgensen. He also happens to be my cousin. We are related through our uncle, Baggybum the Beerbelly. How he got the physical strength and how I ended up being a wimp, I do not know. And right behind him was…

_Oh my Odin._

It was Astrid Hofferson.

She is the most beautiful Viking I have ever met. I have always dreamed of going on a date with her. But I have failed to catch her attention other than being an annoying little child (that was what she called me). If I was going to win her heart over, I would need to do something big. Something like bringing down a dragon. With that in mind, I secretly grabbed a sword from the weapon shelf and tried to sneak out of the stall. Unfortunately for me, Gobber spotted me and grabbed my by the scruff of my neck (not again) with his prosthetic left arm. I groaned in irritation.

'Come on, let me out. I need to make my mark.'

Gobber did not buy it. Instead, he poked my body with his prosthetic arm and said, 'You've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places.'

'Please, two minutes. I'll kill a dragon. My life will get infinitely better. I might even get a date.' I spoke in desperation. Gobber sighed and started to state a few facts about my muscular capabilities.

'You can't lift a hammer. You can't swing an axe. You can't even throw one of _these_!' he finished, holding up a bola.

Now that Gobber had mentioned bolas, I decided that it would do me some good if I were to show him my latest creation. I felt a glimmer of hope. If my creation could work, then my life will get infinitely better, and I might even get to go on a date with Astrid.

'Yes, but this will throw it for me.' I pointed out my cannon, giving it a slight pat. Perhaps I forgot to unwind the trigger, because the next moment, my cannon sprang out of its container and fired a bola. It hit an unlucky Viking (on his forehead) who was happened to be queuing up for his share of weapons. He let out a yelp of pain and collapsed onto the floor, clearly unconscious. That must have hurt, a lot.

_Sorry,_ I thought.

Anyway, since I mentioned my bola cannon, I might as well give you a brief history about its development. A few months back, while I was manning the stall during a dragon raid, I noticed that bolas were extremely devastating. A bola is essentially made up of a few rocks tied to a central ring. When it hits a dragon, the vine cords will wrap around the dragon's wings and the combined weight will cause the dragon to plummet to the ground. Very effective, but the only problem was that it had to be thrown by hand. Not very effective for long-range shots. So began the development of 'The Mangler'. It took me three months to get it right, and I wasn't going to let the effort go to waste. Gobber, however, did not approve of it.

'Now this right here is what I'm talking about!' he said impatiently, pointing his good hand (the one that is not amputated, duh) at my cannon. Oh, and did I mention that the aiming mechanism wasn't sorted out yet? I thought that by telling Gobber that I could probably get my chance to test out my cannon.

'It is just some mild calibration issue. Once I get it sorted out I could…' I began.

Gobber waved his hands in an irritated manner, cutting off my sentence with a sentence of his own.

'Hiccup. If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons,' he poked my chest with his prosthetic arm. '…you need to stop all… _this_.' he stated, waving his hands in a manner such that he could point out my entire body in one go (everyone does that to me).

_Why does it always have got something to do with my size?_

I pulled out the same excuse I always use when I am being criticized for my small build.

'But you just pointed to all of me.'

'That's it! Stop being all of you!'

That was when my snarkiness kicked in.

'Oh. You sir are playing a dangerous game. Keeping this much raw Vikingness contained? There will be consequences!' I said, waving my finger at the blacksmith.

Gobber stared at me with a deadpan, no-nonsense look. He then took a big, heavy sword and handed it to me. 'I'll take my chances. Sword. Sharpen. _Now_.'

I staggered under the weight of the steel. I brought it over to the grinding machine and placed the sword on top of it. Sparks flew as the metal met stone. I had mixed feelings at that point in time. I was feeling irritated, because I was always denied the opportunity to prove myself. I was feeling angry because of all this treat-Hiccup-like-dirt thing going on. And, I was feeling disappointed because I had lost the chance to prove myself to my tribe _again_, to prove that even though I am small and weak, I could still be able to fight dragons using my various inventions.

But no matter what, I know that someday, I'll get out there. Someday, I'll be recognized by the tribe. Because killing a dragon is everything around here. There are five types of dragons that raid our village. Occasionally, there would be other kinds. But these five are the constant visitors. They are as follows, ranked in increasing order of dangerousness and the honor earned from killing any one of them. There is the Nadder. They are the most common types of dragons. Cyan in color with multi-colored spots here and there, a Nadder's fire is hot enough to melt steel. Not the most friendly of dragons. A Nadder's head is sure to get me at least noticed. Then, there is the Gronkle. They are very tough. Light brown in coloration, their hide can only be penetrated by the sharpest of weapons that are specially designed for that purpose. Taking down one of those would definitely get me a girlfriend. Zipplebacks are exotic. They possess two heads, one for breathing the flammable gas, the other for sparking it. They can create really interesting explosive patterns. Green in color, with black patterns here and there, the two head often fight with each other, as if they were in disagreement with each other. If I manage to down one of those, I would gain twice the status.

A catapult was fired somewhere in the distance, followed by the roar of a dragon.

And then, there is the Monstrous Nightmare. They are crimson red in color with a white underbelly. Two long horns protrude out of its head and it has spikes running down its back. They are the first ones to arrive and almost always the last ones to leave. Only the best Vikings go after those. Why? They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire, making them very difficult to kill. Fighting a medium sized enraged dragon that is currently coated in kerosene flame that can melt through flesh and char bones is nasty business. Trust me, you do not want to be caught in that creature's jaws. Those canines are about half my size. It would not be a pretty sight.

I spotted one on the eastern command tower. It disappeared in a flash of flame and started to terrorize the Vikings manning the catapult on the top. But whichever Viking fighting the Nightmare was doing a pretty good job. Even as tempting the offer (or not), it is not the Nightmare I was going for. Though they are one of the most dangerous and toughest breed of dragons around here, there is still one more. It is called the Night Fury. It is the holy grail (unholy grail) for the Vikings. It is the ultimate prize, the gold medal, with eternal glory attached to its capture or slaughter… well, you get the general idea. Their fire are the most unconventional. Released in short bursts, these blue (yes, blue) harbingers of death can incinerate and not to mention obliterate (let alone implode) a command tower; a feat that no other dragon could do. In other words, it is exclusive to the Night Fury. But this advantage in firepower comes at a price. After much observation, I concluded that whenever the Night Fury attacks, it dives to a low altitude, roughly a hundred feet above sea level, just within range of my bola-firing contraption. And the other price the Night Fury has to pay is that the explosion caused by its all-so-awesome (and fearsome and awe-inspiring) fireball will temporarily reveal its whereabouts, making it _very _vulnerable to my bola cannon. Considering the advantages that I had over the other Vikings, the Night Fury will be what I _will_ be going for.

Just then, a high-pitched, whistling shriek pierced through the night, masking all other noises. This is a tell-tale sign that a...

'NIGHT FURY!' someone shouted.

… is going to start its dive bombing.

'GET DOWN!' someone else shouted.

BANG!

There was a brilliant flash of blue light as the fireball hit the catapult on the roof of the eastern command centre. The catapult splintered into a thousand pieces, which flew in all directions. The Night Fury was outlined against the explosion for a split second as it literally screamed through the fireball. Two Vikings jumped down from the damaged tower. I hoped that they weren't seriously hurt.

Anyways, this thing never steals food, never show itself and never, _never_, misses its target.

The whistling shriek pierced the night once again, and the Night Fury struck the final blow to the command tower, blasting a neat hole in the centre, causing it to topple over and crash into the ocean. If only I could somehow sneak both my bola cannon and myself out of the forge, then maybe I could shoot down the Night Fury. Gobber came over to my side and announced, 'Man the fort, Hiccup. They need me out there.' He replaced his prosthetic hand with an axe and walked out of the stall. He stopped just at the exit and turned around to face me.

'Stay. Put. There. You know what I mean.' and with that, he charged out of the stall.

_Stay here when I could go out to kill Night Furies? Yeah, right._

I knew at once that this was my chance to shoot down the Night Fury. And I wasn't going to pass up this golden opportunity. We have to… er, what's the phrase? Strike while the iron is hot, right? I pushed my cannon on its wheels out of the stall. When I was out, I calculated the best possible position to get a clear shot. While I was at the stall, I observed that the battle was going on mostly at the southeast side of the island, leaving the top half untouched. I saw the western command tower and decided that I would go there. I met a lot of Vikings on my way there, they greeted me the usual way ('Get back inside!'). Anyway, I could not care less. When I bring down a Night Fury and prove myself to the tribe, all this 'Hiccup is useless!' nonsense will come to an end.

I set my cannon down once I reached the desired destination. I opened the container, pulled out the cannon, released the crossbows and cocked the weapon. I was all set. All I needed to do now was to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

_Oh please do not make me look stupid standing out here._

I sighed in desperation. I was so close to reaching my goal… yet so far.

'Come on. Give me something to shoot at. Give me something to shoot at.' I prayed.

Then, as if the gods have heard me, a roar emanated from somewhere above me. I looked skyward, straining my eyes. And, sure enough, I could see the faint outline of the Night Fury silhouetted against the star-specked night sky. I gripped my cannon harder. The silhouette made a dive for the command tower, emitting a shrill whistling shriek. I looked through the aiming mechanism. There was a bright flash of blue light and a loud bang. The shockwave rustled my hair. And I saw it. The Night Fury was passing through the explosion, exposing its dark hide for a moment. I muttered a silent prayer to the gods. It was do or die. I would never get a chance like this again. Closing my eyes, I pulled the trigger once I got a target lock on the Night Fury.

THWACK!

The force exerted by my bola-firing mechanism was so great, it propelled me five meters back and caused me to do some involuntary back flips along my back. That was going to hurt for a while. But all I cared about now was whether I had hit the Night Fury or not. I stood up just in time to hear a sickening crack and an anguished roar. The silhouette of the Night Fury zoomed off to my right and landed in the forest nearby. As far as I can tell, it had landed in an area of the Forest of Misery was called Raven Point. I would tell that to the rest of the village later, but now I wanted to celebrate my success.

'Oh, I hit it? Yes, I hit it! Did anybody see that?' I turned away from my bola cannon and waved my hands in a melodramatic way even though I knew that there would be no audience. But we should all have some fun once in a while, shouldn't we?

A sickening crack made my heart freeze. I turned to my back only to discover, to my utmost horror, that a Nightmare was crouching behind me.

'Except for you.'

I screamed for help as I ran away from the pursuing dragon, hoping that someone would hear my plea for help. A stream of fire narrowly missed my back, hitting the stone walls instead. The Nightmare fired another stream of fire. I saw one of the torch poles and decided that I would hide behind it. It would not provide much protection against the dragon but I still held hope that someone would come to find me. A blast of heat singed my hair. The metallic part of the pole was beginning to melt away. It would not be long before I became dragon munch. And, sure enough, the Nightmare was by my side in a matter of seconds.

_Oh no. This is it. Goodbye, cruel world._

BAM!

Something big and heavy slammed into the Monstrous Nightmare's face. The dragon was thrown off balance. The heavy mass stopped moving and I recognized it as Stoick. He cracked his knuckles and stared at the Nightmare with a fierce look. The Nightmare opened its mouth to breathe fire but only managed to produce a pew puffs of smoke. Cracking his knuckles menacingly, the man said in a bored tone,

'You're all out.'

Stoick charged and gave the dragon three hard whacks on its face. Intimidated, the Nightmare scampered away from the scene.

_Oh, and there is one more thing you need to know._

CRACK!

The torch pole collapsed, with the still-alight torch on top of it. The flaming torch broke free from its restraints and rolled along the street, disappearing over the edge of a wooden bridge. The wooden bridge broke, sending the torch on a fifty meter drop to the bottom of the harbor. I could hear the screams of various Vikings as the torch continued on its mad rampage through the harbor, crashing through buildings. A group of Vikings were trying to haul away a net with a few Nadders, but ran away shrieking as the torch tore through the net, turning it into ash and setting the dragons free. The dragon raiders left, along with their load of sheep. They were definitely going to have a good breakfast while I was about to become breakfast. I stood there, face to face with the huge man.

'Sorry, Dad.' was all I managed to get out.

Yes, Stoick the Vast was my father. Stoick the all-so awesome huge, big, stocky man has a not-so-awesome midget named Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The Third as a son. Heredity, unfortunately for me, did not follow logic and caused me to be born in this manner. I was considered a let down by my father, but hey, it is not my fault that I was born in this manner. It is not like I chose to be skinny and not-so-awesome. But I could not resist the urge to say something to my father.

'Okay, but I hit a Night Fury.' I blurted out.

I half-expected Stoick to congratulate me or even to question me, but instead, I got hauled away by the scruff of my neck (NOT AGAIN!).

'Oh, dad. It's not like the last few times. This time I actually hit it. It went down just off Raven Point. Lets get a search party to find it before it…'

'STOP!' Stoick bellowed at the top of his voice as he put me down and turned to face me. 'Just stop.'

He let out a sigh and continued, 'Every time you step outside disaster follows! Can't you see that I have bigger problems here? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!'

'Yeah, well, between you and me the village could do with a little less feeding don't you think?' I said, raising the point that being scrawny has its own benefits. Stoick did not buy it.

'This is not a joke, Hiccup! Oh, why can't you follow the simplest orders?'

'I can't stop myself. I see a dragon and I have to just… kill it,' I imitated a knifing action, 'you know. It's who I am, Dad.'

'You're many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer is not one of them. Get back to the house. And make sure he gets there, Gobber. I have his mess to clean up.' Stoick sighed exasperatedly and walked off without a second glance, assigning different villagers jobs that involved cleaning up my 'mess'.

_Why don't you trust me, Dad?_

I have never felt so unloved, so neglected, so untrusted in my life before. I actually hit a Night Fury for Odin's sake! And my dad just takes it as if I have done something wrong. Yeah sure, I screwed up. So what? Wait till I get you the heart of the Night Fury I shot down, dad. Only then will you have realized my true potential.

As Gobber and I started on our journey back to my house, we crossed the group of junior to-be dragon fighters.

_Oh here we go again,_ I cursed inwardly, knowing that these guys weren't going to pass up the opportunity to mock my streak of bad luck.

'Quite the performance.' commented Ruffnut.

'I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped!' exclaimed my cousin. Fishlegs was laughing silently. Heck, even my best friend wasn't on my side.

I responded to Snotlout's snide comment with a 'Thank you. Thank you. I was trying.'

Fortunately for me, Gobber pushed Snotlout onto the floor, which ended his chance of commenting further. That left Gobber and me. We walked up the slope towards my house. I desperately wanted someone to know that I hit a Night Fury, so I tried to convince Gobber.

'I really did hit one, Gobber.' I said in a tired voice.

'Sure, Hiccup.' Gobber answered with a touch of skepticism in his tone.

_Yeah, you have great convincing powers, Hiccup._

'He never listens.' I stated, trying to get my point across that my father almost always never listens to me.

'It runs in the family.' Obviously Gobber wasn't trying to be much of a help.

'When he does listen, it's with this disappointed scowl, like someone skimped on meat in his sandwich.'

My snarky nature kicked in, right on schedule.

' "Excuse me, barmaid. I'm afraid you've brought me the wrong offspring. I wanted and extra-large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side. This here, this is a talkin' fishbone!" ' I said in mock imitation of Stoick's voice.

'Now you're thinking about this wrong. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's on the _inside_ he can't stand.' summarized Gobber.

'Thank you for summing that up.'

'Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not.'

'I just wanna be one of you guys.' I pointed out. With that, I opened the door to my house and went inside.

My father may have wanted me to stay at home. But I had different plans. I am going to find the Night Fury for all I cared. I am going to find it, kill it, take its heart to my father and prove, once and for all, that I am a Viking. I went up to my room and retrieved all the necessary items: A knife, my notebook, and a charcoal stick.

Onwards to Raven Point!

I slipped out of the back door of my house, hoping that no one would notice my little escape.

_Dad, be prepared for the greatest shock in your entire life.  
_

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There you have it, chapter one. Chapter two should be up by next week, if time permits. Now that you've done the reading, please review my story. Constructive criticism is welcome. Please feel free to point out the mistakes (I am sure it is riddled with errors) and I would try to improve on it. Have a good day!


	2. The Downed Dragon

All right guys, chapter 2 is up! Started work on it at around 6 am. I hope all of you would find it of acceptable quality. I had a hard time writing this chapter. Had to re-write the part where Hiccup meets Toothless in the forest from scratch three times over. I know that this has been uploaded earlier than scheduled. Why? Because I had help from my aunt, who had so generously rendered her spell-checking and grammar proofreading services to me. If not for her, I would still be halfway through the story, and you would probably not see this chapter until after my examinations (next week). So, a deep bow to her.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own How To Train Your Dragon and that includes its characters. I also happen to not own Dreamworks Studios nor any of its affiliates. Put these two together and that means that I do not intend to make any profit out of the production of this work of fiction.

Now, without further ado, I present to you chapter two, The Downed Dragon. Remember to enjoy yourself!

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Chapter 2: The Downed Dragon

'Either we finish them, or they'll finish us! It is the only way we'll be rid of 'em!' a powerful, stocky, red-bearded Viking announced to his fellow Vikings. They were gathered in the Meade hall, which to the Vikings, was an architectural masterpiece. The stone ceiling was supported by massive wooden beams that criss-crossed their way through the air, forming intricate geometrical patterns. Torches lined the hall. A small hole in the roof allowed some light in, highlighting a dragon with a sword stuck through its belly, carved out entirely of gold. Below the imposing dragon statue was a huge table with a huge hole in the middle, which housed a large hearth that was alight, providing ample heat to the thousands of Vikings now currently gathered around it. There was a tone of solemness as they all stood facing the one man who was in charge of them all, the half-giant in the middle of the hall- Stoick The Vast.

'If we find the nest and destroy it, the dragons will leave, they'll find another home!' Stoick reasoned with the crowd of stubborn Vikings. He emphasized his sentence by plunging his knife into the colored map, right where a couple of runes that were roughly translated as '_Dragons' Nest (?)_'. There was a resounding _thud_ as the metal buried itself into the wood. Stoick continued on his speech.

'One more search, before the ice sets in.' At that sentence, a certain tone of uneasiness settled over the occupants of the hall. People started to give various reasons on why they could not go, because going on dangerous expeditions like this could cost you your life.

'Count me out.'

'Today's no good for me.' someone complained.

'Er, I have to wait until my axe returns.' someone said.

'I have not finished my laundry.' someone else said

'Something important has cropped up, so I am unavailable today.' announced a voice.

Stoick sighed. He had to deal with these reasons every time he wanted to go on an expedition in search of the elusive Dragons' Nest. He had managed to come up with a pretty good excuse for the last one, and decided to test if it would work again.

'We're Vikings. It is an occupational hazard.' he sighed in antagonization. 'Now who's with me?' Stoick said as he shot his hand up into the air. They were going to need a much more powerful incentive if they were to follow me, thought Stoick. In desperation, an idea popped up in his mind Stoick was sure that it would work. He smiled slyly to himself.

_Let's see if they could beat this._

'Alright, those who stay will look after Hiccup.'

At the mention of 'Hiccup', a thousand hands shot up into the air in perfect synchronization. People were muttering complaints of objection. Some Vikings even outdone themselves.

'To the ships!'

'I refuse to stay.'

'That's more like it.' said Stoick, a little overwhelmed by the overwhelming reaction from the crowd.

'Right then, we'll set sail under the cover of the night. You're dismissed for the time being. Remember, seven o'clock sharp. No exceptions!' boomed Stoick's deep voice. The crowd dispersed, leaving only two men behind in the hall. They were namely, Gobber The Belch and Stoick The Vast.

'I'll pack my undies then.' Gobber spoke as he got up from his seat. Stoick, however, had other plans for the blacksmith.

'No,' he objected. 'I'll need you to stay and train some new dragon-fighting recruits.' Stoick sat down on the wooden bench next to Gobber. The bench creaked in protest at the sudden increase in weight.

'_Perfect_.' Gobber said sarcastically. He had never liked training session with Viking teenagers. He had found the lot of them to be discourteous and not really focused on the task. 'And while I'm busy, Hiccup can cover the stall. Molten steel, razor-sharp blades, lots of time to himself. What could possibly go wrong?'

_Oh, there are many things that could go wrong with Hiccup around,_ Stoick thought hopelessly.

'What am I going to do with him, Gobber?'

Gobber looked at Stoick with a solemn look on his face. Then he said something that Stoick did not expect from his friend.

'Put him in training.'

_Put him in- WHAT?_

'No, I'm serious.'

'So am I.'

Gobber can be a bit of a stubborn person if he wanted to. Even Stoick had a hard time trying to convince him of certain things.

'He'd be killed before you let the first dragon out of its cage.' Stoick tried to reason.

'Oh, you don't know that.' Gobber waved the sentence away.

_What? Are you mocking me? A father doesn't even understands his own son?_

'I do, actually.'

'No, you don't' retorted Gobber.

'No, I do.'

'_No, you don't!_' Gobber raised his voice in an attempt to get a Stoick's attention. Stoick, obviously, did not want to listen to whatever Gobber's going to say. Because after that, he broke into a long speech about what a Viking could do and what Hiccup could not do.

'Listen, you know what he's like.' said Stoick, standing up from the bench. 'From the time he could crawl, he's been… _different_.'

Gobber shook his head in irritation and continued drinking from his wooden mug.

'… He doesn't listen. He has the attention span of a sparrow…'

Gobber accidentally dropped his fake tooth into the mug, and spent the next few seconds trying to get it out.

'… I take him fishing and he goes hunting for… for _trolls_!'

Gobber perked up at the mention of the word 'trolls'.

'Trolls exist! They steal your socks. But only the left ones. What's with that?' With that, Gobber turned back to the table as Stoick continued with his rant.

'When I was a boy…' Stoick began. Gobber sighed, he had obviously gone through this before.

'Here we go.'

'… my father told me to bang my head against a rock and I did it. I thought it was crazy, but I did not question him…'

Gobber finally found a way to get the tooth out of the mug.

'… and do you know what happened?'

'You got a headache.' said Gobber sarcastically.

'That rock split in two.' Stoick said as Gobber was putting his silver tooth back to its original spot.

'It taught me what a Viking could do, Gobber. He could crush mountain, level forests, tame seas!' Stoick proclaimed melodramatically. 'Even as a boy, I knew what I was, what I had to become…' he regained his seat on the bench once again. Then, he shifted his tone and said disappointedly, 'Hiccup is not that boy.'

Gobber saw his chance to convince Stoick about letting Hiccup participate in dragon training classes.

'You can't stop him, Stoick. You can only prepare him. I know it seems hopeless, but the truth is, you won't always be around to protect him. He's going to get out there someday. He's probably out there now.'

_Good point,_ Stoick thought.

'Think about it, won't you?' Gobber gave Stoick a sympathetic pat on his shoulder before walking out of the hall.

_Valhallarama, wherever you are, please help me._

* * *

_No. The dragon is not here._

_No, its not here either._

_Not here._

_Uh-uh._

_Nil._

_Zilch._

_Nothing here._

In short, I. Am. Pissed.

_Really_ pissed. Why?

Because I have been spending the last two hours scouring the forest for any sign of the Night Fury, and had come up empty. I was pretty sure the dragon had crash landed somewhere off Raven Point, judging by the direction of its roar after it got hit by the bola. I had drawn a map of Berk on my notebook using the charcoal stick. The village was on the left end of the map. I had plotted the possible trajectory the Night Fury would have taken if it got shot down by me. But after twenty-seven failed search attempts, I was ready to give up hope. I decided to search one more location. If the search results turned up naught, I would have to accept the painful truth that either the Night Fury had gotten free of its restraints or I did not hit it at all.

I walked up to the last possible location and closed my eyes. I muttered a silent prayer to the gods, hoping that they would aid me in my futile attempt for the ascension to eternal glory. I opened my eyes and groaned in frustration. Probably the gods weren't feeling too generous at this moment. All that lay before me was a patch of grass littered with a few pebbles here and there. I walked away and initially wanted to draw an 'X' on the hand-drawn map. But anger and frustration took over and I ended up scratching the page with the stick. I closed the notebook and sighed, cursing my bad luck today. First, the village. Second, Gobber. Third, my father. Now, the dragon. My day could not get any worse.

_So close, yet so far._

'Oh, the gods hate me. Some people lose their knife or their mug, not me! I managed to lose an entire dragon?' I said exasperatedly.

Walking further down the road, I saw a broken tree branch and decided to take my anger out on it. I hit it, hard… only to get smacked in the face by the rebounding branch.

_Even the tree branches hate me!_

I yelped in pain and utilized some of my choicest swear words. But the broken tree branch turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When I regained my sense of direction and composure, I noticed that the tree branch was part of a bigger tree. A bigger, _splintered_ tree. It had split in half. One half was still standing while the other half was dangling limply in one direction. I also noticed that there were some pieces of black membrane stuck in between the splinters where the tree had split. There were also claw marks along the tree branch. Looking in the direction of the broken tree, I saw that there was a mud track on the forest ground.

_Could this be it?_

Hope rose within me. If this was it, if the Night Fury was down there, I would be saved, and the village can forget about poking fun at me no more. I followed the mud track. It wound its way up the forest floor and disappeared behind a mound of dirt. I crawled to the dirt mound. Taking a peep over the edge, I caught a glimpse of the Night Fury. _Ah!_ I shot back down again. Was it a hallucination? Was I so desperate in searching for the Night Fury that I had mistaken a shrub for a dragon? Hope rose in my chest. There was still a small chance that the dragon would actually be there. Not wanting to spoil the surprise, I raised my head above the mound of dirt again, this time much more slowly. Yes! It was still over there, lying by its side, with its wings and limbs tangled up by my bola.

_Well done, Hiccup. You've done it!_

But there are some unfinished business left to do. Which meant that I would have to go up close and personal with the Night Fury, which meant that I would be vulnerable to attacks from the dragon should it be alive. _Alright, calm down, Hiccup. Where's the knife?_ I groped around my tool-belt and felt the reassuring roughness of the leather coated hilt of my knife. I extracted it form its resting place and held it out in front of me for extra reassurance. I made a dash for the boulder that was conveniently positioned next to the downed Night Fury.

_Okay, okay. Let's get out and take a look._

I mustered all the courage I had and came out of my temporary hiding place. I stared at the black creature, not believing my stroke of luck. I really hoped that it was dead, that would spare me the trouble of killing it.

'I did it. Oh, wow, I did it. This… this fixes everything! Yes! I have brought down this mighty beast!' I proclaimed dramatically, putting my right foot onto the dragon's left frontal paw. A growl escaped from the beast's throat and I jumped back in fear and surprise. So, the dragon was still alive. I held out the knife in front of me, and approached the dragon, this time much more cautiously. The dragon lay there, with its eyes open. But it was very much unlike the other dragon's eyes. Most dragons had small orangey-yellow eyes. This one, however, had big green eyes, with an extra-large pupil. Just like… like

_Like me._

_Oh, come on. Get back to work, you scrawny Viking!_

_Wor… Work? Oh, yeah, lets get back to work._

Once I had disposed of this beast, I will bring its heart to my father and get immortalized as the first Viking to ever kill a Night Fury. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The Third, Dragon Slayer*. Has a nice ring to it, no?

_Thats the spirit!_

'I'm going to kill you, dragon. I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father.' I said evilly.

No doubt that this was going to be very messy, but we're Vikings, we do this for a living.

'I am a Viking. I AM A VIKING!' I shouted at the dragon and shook my hands for emphasis.

I looked at the dragon's eyes and the dragon looked back at me. I could sense the sorrow behind those green eyes, as if dragon was pleading with me not to kill it.

_No. That's nonsense. Dragons can't plead, can they? They are just dumb, murderous beasts, aren't they?_

_How can you prove that?_

I took in a deep breath, and was about to plunge the knife into the creature when it whined.

_Go on, Hiccup. Be brave. Just do it._

I raised the knife again, readying it. Then, it whined again. This time much louder than the last. I looked at the dragon's eyes again. An odd sensation passed through me as I did so.

_Gah! Damn the eyes._

But there was something about that look. I stared at the beast, with the knife dangling in my hand. As much as I wanted to end the creature's life, I found myself constantly looking back at those green eyes that were filled with emotions. The dragon groaned again. A heated debate was going on in my mind. Should I kill the dragon, or show it some mercy?

_Just kill it, you useless boy. Hasn't pleasing your father something that you've always wanted to achieve?_

_Yeah, but isn't this a little heartless? Killing a helpless animal?_

_Who gives a damn? Every man for himself. If you do not kill it, the person who suffers will be you._

The Night Fury moaned in sorrow, closed its eyes, and laid its head on the ground, as if it had given up all hope of trying to convince me.

_You see, even the dragon admits defeat! Go on, finish what you started._

I almost did it when the image of the dragon's pleading eyes popped into my head again. My hands froze as I contemplated the image again.

_No… can't… kill it… The eyes are too… Damn it!_

I gave up trying to plunge the knife into the dragon's heart. I just could not bring myself to kill it. If there was one thing I learnt from this encounter, it would be that killing was not within my league. I sighed and pressed the blunt side of the knife to my head. I stared at the unmoving dragon. And for the first time I felt compassion for the very thing that had been terrorizing our village for centuries. The dragon's breaths came in deep, heavy pants, as if it were sobbing.

_Damn the eyes. I give up. Lets just call this a failure and head back home._

'I did this.' I muttered to myself in defeat.

I started to walk away from the dragon, but my conscience nagged at me as I did so.

_You cannot walk away like this. The least you could do is to free it!_

Stopping in my tracks, I looked back. The Night Fury did look pitiful in this state with its wings and arms and legs rendered useless by the bola. It was not long before I came to a decision.

'I must be out of my mind.' I muttered to myself.

Using my knife, I began severing the bindings. It felt apart with a soft chink. Then, I proceeded to the next one, and the next. With the last rope cut, I fully expected the dragon to fly away from this god-forsaken forest. What I did not expect was for the dragon to pounce on me. With one fluid swipe of its enormous front paws, it pinned me to the huge boulder.

_Oh gods._

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The Third, _Dead_ Dragon Slayer*.

The Night Fury fixated its evil, green eyes on me. It seem to be debating with itself whether or not to kill me. I could feel its hot breath, which smelled like rotten fish, on my face. I looked back at those very eyes that belonged to my would-be-killer. The dragon hesitated longer. I felt a glimmer of hope. Some part of me was hoping that the Night Fury would actually spare my life in exchange for me freeing it.

_Please don't kill me yet. I've still got many years left to live._

The dragon reared on its back and opened its mouth, displaying its fangs. My time on this planet has officially been cut short, very short indeed. I adverted my gaze away from the horrific creature, hoping that my end would come quickly. Then the roar came. And I am not just talking about any roar. This was an ear-splitting, earth-shattering, so-loud-that-it-will-make-your-head-burst kind of roar. The pain in my ears were so unbearable to the point that I shouted back at the Night Fury.

'AHHHHH!'

Well, it is obvious who was the winner of this shouting contest.

Ending its roar, the Night Fury launched itself into the air. I stood up (rather slowly) and looked in the direction in which the dragon flew off. I could still see the dragon struggling to gain enough momentum to fly. But I guess it failed to achieve that, for it fell and disappeared into the canyon below. The long-term consequences incurred by the freeing of the dragon will be grave. More sheep will tend to be lost and there is a good chance that more people will be killed in future dragon raids. But for now, realizing the fact that I had just survived an encounter with the most dangerous dragon was enough to make my day. Sure, my tribe would not believe me. But seriously, who cares about other people's opinion when you know that you had achieved something yourself?

I took a few unsteady steps in the opposite direction… and collapsed onto the floor. It wasn't long before I passed out, waking up only hours later when the sun was about to set.

Night was falling by the time I had reached the borders of the village. I guess I must have taken a very slow walk through the forest. Stars dotted the sky. But I did not have time right now to enjoy the view. Sneaking into my house through the back door, I saw that my father was stoking the fire. Great. The person I least wanted to see at this moment was my father. He would surely bombard me with a myriad of questions regarding my long absence from home and why I smelled of the forest. Then, he would suspect that something is up and that will be the end of me. Making a quick dash for the staircase, I actually made it to the top of the steps… _almost_.

'Hiccup.' he said sternly, noticing my presence.

I stopped my ascent and looked at my father. He turned to face me. There was a grave look on his face. Definitely not a desirable look from a man that could crush mountains, level forests and tame seas. Not to mention popping out a dragon's head clean off its shoulders… when he was three.

'Dad… er, I need to talk to you, dad.' I began.

'I need to speak to you, too, son.'

'I don't want to fight dragons.' I said, or _was_ trying to say. Unfortunately, Stoick said something too, at the same time. So, what I heard was this:

'I guess its want to fight dragons.'

When we realized that each of us had something to say, we started arguing as to which person should speak first. Anyways, to cut the long story short, I let Stoick speak, and immediately regretted that decision when I heard what he said next.

'All right. You get your wish. Dragon training… You start in the morning.'

_Uh-oh_.

You see, my father is the perfect exemplification of a perfect dragon-fighting Viking. He is tall, muscular, bad-tempered, incredibly strong, has a coat of armor and wears a horned hat. Oh, and did I mention that he is very stubborn? There is no hope of changing his mind about something once he has decided on that something. Which means that I will be going for dragon training no matter what I say or how I objected to it. But I should at least give that a try.

'Oh, man, I should have gone first. You know, I was thinking that maybe we have a surplus of dragon-fighting Vikings. But do we have enough bread-making Vikings or small home-repair Vikings?' I said, hoping that my father would get my point.

He obviously didn't (or was too stubborn), because the moment after I said that he handed me an axe.

'You'll need this, Hiccup.' he said bluntly, while heaving the rusted weapon onto my (forced opened) outstretched arms.

Staggering under the stupendous weight of the axe, I decided that I would just cut to the chase.

'I don't want to fight dragons, Dad.' I said with a slight quiver in my voice.

My dad laughed off my sentence. 'Oh, come on. Yes you do.'

I was getting pretty desperate right now. 'Rephrase. Dad, I can't kill dragons.'

'But you will kill dragons.' he said,

'No, I am very extra-sure that I won't.' I restated.

'It is time, Hiccup.' said Stoick, an obvious change in his tone.

'Can you not hear me?' I half-shouted

'This is serious, son.' Dad said with authority. He then proceeded to grab the axe from my arms and continued with his little speech. 'When you carry this axe. You carry all of us with you. Which means that you walk like us, you talk like us and you think like us. No more of… this.' he finished by waving his hands at my body.

_Time to bring out the excuse_.

'You just gestured to all of me.' I said, lamely.

'Deal?' he asked.

_Hey, thats not fair. You haven't even considered whatever I said!_

'This conversation is feeling very one-sided…'

'Deal?' Stoick said, this time much louder, cutting across my sentence. I had no choice but to accept the inevitable.

'Deal.' I said weakly.

_Damn it!_

Stoick picked up a basket from the floor and slung it over his shoulder. I knew what it meant immediately. My father was going to try to find the dragon's nest again. After hundreds of failed attempts, we Vikings should have given up all hope of ever finding the nest. It is virtually impossible to navigate through the thick fog and countless granite pillars enshrouding the nest. Hellheim's Gate, we called it. And it is foggy there three-hundred and sixty-five days of the year, not a very good place to live in. Winter was coming in a it would make matters worse for the expedition team. To my father, it meant business. To me, it meant that I would be spending a Stoick-free week.

'Good. Train hard. I'll be back, probably.' announced Dad. He walked out of the front door without a second glance.

'And I'll be here. Maybe.' I croaked.

This was not going to be good. I think that I would probably be dead before they let the first dragon out of its cage. But then I wondered. Why did my father change his mind about putting me in dragon training all of a sudden? Why did he say that 'It is time, Hiccup'? What is he driving at? I had been neglected and treated like manure and denied every opportunity to join the dragon training club for a period of almost seven years and then my father suddenly says, 'You get your wish. Dragon training. You start in the morning'. That was very un-Stoick like.

I sighed to myself. My father was essentially putting me on a crash course in suicide. Fight dragons? It might have sounded pretty cool to me when I was still young and naive and when I thought that killing dragons would be as easy as ABC. But it is not! I mean, dragons have life. They are living things, for Odin's sake. I mean, if I tied you up, locked you in a cage, feed you rotten scraps of food, then bring you out for the sole purpose of seeing you getting beaten or killed for the sake of entertainment, how would you feel? What a twisted world we live in! I set the axe down on the weapon shelf and proceeded upstairs to my bedroom. As I lay there in bed, I tried to imagine what life would be like if humans and dragons were living together in harmony. That would be great. But it seems like it is impossible for a day like that to arrive. At least, not within the next thousand years or so.

* * *

End of Chapter two, The Downed Dragon

*This quote was taken from the book called Pendragon. I replaced the original one with Hiccup, so it became this. Anyways, Pendragon is a good book. You should go read it. The sense of humor is spot on.

How did you find the chapter? Was it satisfactory? I would appreciate it if you would leave a review for this chapter, I really want to see my story from a reader's perspective. Then again, constructive criticism is always welcome.

Have a pleasant day! And don't forget to review!


	3. Crash Course In Dragon Training

Chapter 3 is up! Hope you like it. Perhaps you might have noticed that I've changed the story summary. I would not be changing the plot anymore. Having reviewed it I think that it isn't very smooth. So I guess I'll stick too the original movie plot. Sorry about that.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own 'How To Train Your Dragon' or any of its characters. So do not get any ideas.

* * *

Chapter 3: Crash Course In Dragon Training

It was late at night. The wooden planks of the piers creaked as rows of Vikings boarded the ships. Torches were lit. People were stationed here and there, shouting orders and guiding the Vikings to their designated boats.

'You there! Move along. There is no time to waste!'

A giant, red bearded, armor plated, torch wielding man boarded the frontmost boat. He was so heavy that he caused the boat to tilt in his direction slightly, despite the fact that there were fifty more Vikings in front of him. Setting the torch down on one of the brackets, he regarded the crowd.

'Tonight, we set off on an expedition to find the dragons' nest. All of you know very well the risks involved in this. We have lost men in previous expeditions. But we're Vikings, and its an occupational hazard. We'll find the nest and take it. We'll take it and avenge the lives of all those who have suffered under the reign of these… _monsters_.'

The Vikings nodded their heads in agreement. Stoick took down the torch and held it in his enormous palm. He then thrust it into the air, causing specks of ash to flutter in all directions.

'For Odin!' he shouted.

'_For Odin!_' the rest of the Vikings echoed. They punched their fists into the air. The guards standing at the loading dock boarded the ships as the boatswain called out, 'All aboard!'

'Set sail!' the red-bearded man ordered. The high tension anchor ropes were severed and the ships sailed forwards. It was not long before the ships disappeared into the horizon, leaving behind no trace of their passing.

* * *

'Hiccup! Get up, you're late!' came a accented voice. The owner of that voice was knocking on my door. I jolted straight up in my bed. Late for what?

'Come on, Hiccup! The rest of the dragon training group are waiting for you!' the voice called out once again.

Oh, yeah. I had forgotten that I was enlisted for dragon training. The visitor to my house rapped at the door.

'_Hiccup!_' there was a definite tone of impatience in the tone. Grabbing my axe, I called out to the unknown person.

'I'm coming!'

Opening the house door, I was met with a rather plump Viking. He had blue eyes and a blonde coloration to his long mustache. He wore a tattered cotton clothing with a dark brown fur coat draped around his neck and had a wooden stump as a prosthetic left leg. A helmet with two horns capped his rather small head. But perhaps the most distinguishing feature about him was his prosthetic arm. _Interchangeable_ prosthetic arm, I might add. Somedays, he had a stone mallet as his arm, while he might have an axe as an arm someday else. For now, he had an evil looking hook as a limb.

He was Gobber The Belch. Full time blacksmith, full time meathead and a full time friend of my father. Well, I also happens to be his apprentice in blacksmithing. Looking at me with an irritated look, he said in an irritated voice, 'Well, about time. Let's go.'

Following him out of the house, I decided to asked him a few questions about dragon training.

'Do recruits die during training?'

Gobber chuckled. 'Well, if you follow the instructions, you'll do just fine.'

I gulped. Having a knack of _not_ following orders, well, I could not imagine what would happen to me if I screwed up during training. We headed for the harbor, passing by a few Vikings that were hanging out there. All of them scowled at my approach.

'You better listen to Gobber.' one of them called out. 'If you behave like a bad boy, I'll make sure your father hears about it.' another one of them chuckled.

I looked around the harbor. It was empty except for a few fishing boats anchored at the side of one pier. I guessed that the expedition team had left in search of the dragons' nest. We hit the northern catapult tower and turned right, deeper into the harbor. Soon, we came to an area full of ancient granite pillars, all of which dating far back into the past, even long before we Vikings had set foot on this island. Crossing several wooden bridges that connected the different granite pillars in an intricate maze of acrophobic horrors, falling down is not an option. A five hundred foot drop to the bottom of the chasm is not a great way to die. Worse still, the bridges had no safety barriers. I shuddered at the thought of what would happen if someone accidentally pushed another person without meaning to and that person falls over the edge of the bridge. Not a pretty sight.

Finally, we rounded a rather tall granite pillar and saw the imposing cliff looming up ahead. A metallic chain was connected to an overhanging ledge at the top of the cliff. Following the chain downwards, I could see an intricate net made out of criss-crossing chains. A wooden platform surrounded that. I guessed that was where we were headed for. But between there and here, we still had to cross the wretched bridge. We finally made it to the end after five minutes due to a worrying creaking noise that we heard halfway across the bridge.

A small group of teenage Vikings were gathered around a rather large iron gate that was slanted at an angle such that it could fit into the structure. A latch was connected to a chain that was part of a pulley system that I guessed would lift up the entire gate so as to create an opening for us to get inside. Recognizing the faces if the group of Vikings, I decided to lag behind as Gobber faced the class.

'All right, we can go in now.' He pulled the lever and the gate sprang upwards (told you I was right!) The entrance passageway was lined with weapons of all sorts. There was a huge iron mallet, an evil-looking spear, a sword, and some other unrecognizable weapons that looked like they could do some serious damage. There was a sign in runes that translated roughly as 'Warning, no underage Vikings beyond this point.' Another iron gate, this time thicker and much stronger looking than the one outside, separated us from whatever horrors the ring held.

Lifting up the iron barrier, he welcomed us in.

'Welcome to dragon training!'

Welcome to dragon training? More like 'Welcome to suicide camp'. But thats exactly where I am currently headed for. I am definitely not looking forward to the experience of getting killed by a dragon. But, who does? I still have a long life ahead, man! Oh yeah, I forgot that I was in a world where people would willingly sacrifice themselves for the sake of protecting their homeland from dragons. Great. I am in a madhouse full of raving, self-sacrificing maniacs.

Gobber lifted the iron gate and signaled for us to get into the ring. The Kill Ring, we called it. I have not been inside of the Kill Ring before, only on the outside. It is here where we train Vikings up and hone their dragon-fighting skills. The Kill Ring is essentially a carved out stadium measuring about fifty meters from end to end. The dragons are housed in enclosures that are carved into the cliff behind the stadium. The ring is surrounded by a wooden platform, which is where the audience will stand. Every year, we will hold the coming-of-age ceremony in the Kill Ring. The to-be Vikings will get to kill their first dragon during the ceremony. After they had successfully slain the unlucky dragon, they will mount the dragon's head on a spear and mount the spear on a podium not far away from here. Ick. A thin metal barrier is what separates the audience from the trainees or the to-be Vikings and the dragon, of course. I lagged behind the rest of the group, making sure that I would enter the Kill Ring last. The last thing you need to hear is for people to start making fun of you. Especially when you are already feeling down.

The group of teenage Vikings treaded onto the polished marble flooring and took a look at their surroundings.

'I hope I get some serious burns.' I heard Tuffnut say.

'I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my back or something.' Ruffnut commented.

'Yeah, its only fun if you get a scar out of it.' said a voice whom I recognized it to belong to Astrid.

I decided to make my entrance at that moment.

'Yeah, no kidding, right? Pain. Love it.' I announced sarcastically.

The other teenagers scowled at my arrival, with the possible exception of Fishlegs. Tuffnut was the first to comment because, well, he is always the first person to comment on anything.

'Oh, great. Who let him in?' he said in a scornful manner.

Thankfully, Gobber cut in and ended Tuffnut's chance of commenting further.

'All right. Let's get started! The recruit who does best will win the honor of _killing_ his first dragon in front of the entire village.' said Gobber. He emphasized the word '_killing_' with a twisting motion of his prosthetic arm, which was now a hook (Did I mention that before?).

Snotlout, my cousin, decided to say something about me.

'Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so does that disqualify him or…' his comment was met with a considerable amount of sniggering.

_Yeah, thanks a lot, cousin. But you got one thing wrong: I did not kill the Night Fury._

'Can I transfer to the class of cool Vikings?' my cousin uttered derisively.

The group of teenagers walked off to the other side of the ring, where the dragon cages were positioned. I felt my confidence slipping away. This was not going to be good at all. Gobber patted my shoulder and gave me a little pep talk.

'Don't worry, Hiccup. Look on the bright side. You're small and weak. That'll make you less of a target. The dragons will see you as sick or insane and will go after the more Viking like teens instead.' comforted Gobber. Yeah right. The dragons will probably go after me because I would make an easy meal. I joined the rest of the group. They looked at me fearfully, as if they expected me to drop the axe on their legs or something in one klutzy move. Gobber then stopped in front of the class in order to address us.

'Behind these doors are just the few of the many species of dragons you'll learn to fight. The Deadly Nadder!' Gobber said, pointing to a triangular shaped gate behind him.

'Speed 8, armor 16.' began Fishlegs.

'The Hideous Zippleback.' Gobber indicated a double-arched iron gate that was shaking violently.

'Plus 11 stealth. Times 2.' muttered Fishlegs.

'The Monstrous Nightmare.' Gobber gestured towards a heavily amoured gate that looked as if it was about to come off its hinges.

'Firepower 15.' continued Fishlegs (did he live with dragons his entire life?)

'The Terrible Terror.' Gobber pointed to a gate with a small latch at its bottom (I wondered what that was for).

'Attack 8, venom 12.' Fishlegs half-shouted, earning the attention of an irritated Gobber. I could not blame Gobber, for Fishleg's factual regurgitation was getting on my nerves too.

'Can you stop _that_?' shouted Gobber. Once Fishlegs stopped his recital of the power of each dragon, Gobber went on with his introduction. 'Thank you, Fishlegs.' He then walked over to an arch-shaped iron door and put his hand on the release handle. '_And_ the Gronkle.' he gave us a smirk that told me that this wasn't going to be pretty.

'Jaw strength 8.' whispered Fishlegs to me. I made a mental note to avoid the Gronkle's jaw.

Snotlout felt the need to voice out his opinion, so he did. 'Wait, wait, wait. Aren't you gonna teach us first?'

For the first time in his entire life, my cousin said something that actually made any sense. Gobber, however, had other plans for us.

'I believe in learning on the job.' And with that, Gobber pulled down the lever.

_We could learn something, you know. If we don't get ourselves killed in the process._

The Gronkle burst forth from the cage, obviously hungry for some food. It had wide yellow eyes with black pupils (that reminded me of something). This Gronkle's hide was covered in scars, no doubt sustained through previous training sessions with the Vikings. Our little group scattered, although we almost slipped on the polished marble floor. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were, of course, together. Gronkles are amongst the slowest dragons. They were said to fall asleep while they were flying. However, they can make it up for their firepower. They release short bursts of flame, much like the Night Fury (but not as powerful), which explodes on impact.

'Today is about survival. If you get blasted… You're dead.' added Gobber.

_What a great way to die._

'Quick, what's the first thing you're going to need?' the blacksmith hinted.

'A doctor?' I suggested.

'Plus 5 speed?' answered Fishlegs.

'A shield.' said Astrid.

Gobber nodded in approval, 'Shields. Go get one.'

We ran towards the shield storage area (at the side of the ring) as soon as Gobber said that we should get one. I had some difficulty in picking up the shield, because I was left-handed. Actually, I am the only person in the village that was left-handed. People regarded me as weird because I was most comfortable holding a weapon in my left hand. To preserve whatever little dignity I have, I had to hold the weapon in my right hand. So the shield goes onto my left hand, not exactly easy to maneuver.

'Shields are your most important piece of equipment. If you are to make a choice between a sword or a shield, take the shield.' Gobber continued with his lesson. Luckily, he spotted me fumbling with my shield and helped me put it properly on my left hand. I noticed that Ruffnut and Tuffnut were having tug-of-war with a shield. The Gronkle spotted them and fired a shot, blasting the shield into a hundred pieces. The force of the explosion flung the twins away from each other.

'Ruffnut! Tuffnut! You're out!' exclaimed Gobber. 'Those shields are good for another thing. Noise! Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim!'

I started banging my axe against my shield. It produced a dull thudding that was mildly irritating. I'm guessing that dragons are sensitive to this type of sounds so they will get temporarily disorientated. The Gronkle hovered in front of us and shook its head, as if it were clearing it. We were safe… for now. Walking around the ring, Gobber gave us a hint.

'All dragons have a limited number of shots, for your information.' he announced.

_Dragons have a limited number of shots? So, how many does a Gronkle have?_

I was about to ask that question when Gobber asked, 'How many shots does a Gronkle have?'

Our small group scattered once again, hands tired and sore from the shield-banging exercise. The Gronkle regained its bearings and started moving around in search of Vikings to roast.

'Five?' said my "genius" cousin.

'No, its six!' corrected Fishlegs.

'Correct, six! That's one for each of you!'

The dragon opened its mouth to fire a shot at Fishlegs… only to hit his shield. Fishlegs screamed in pain as the shield crumpled against his hand and shattered, raining bits of wooden spliters all over the marble flooring. The Gronkle was down to four shots now.

'Fishlegs, out.' declared our trainer. That was followed by a 'AHH!' courtesy of Fishlegs. I decided that it was too dangerous to stay out in the ring and went to hide behind a weapon rack. A fireball missed my head by inches, sending bits of chipped-off rocks flying in all directions. I cowered and ran back behind the rack.

Three shots left for the Gronkle.

'Hiccup, get more involved in the fight, won't you?' Gobber scolded.

From behind the rack, I could see that Snotlout was talking to Astrid. The Gronkle set its sights on them. Astrid was obviously not listening to whatever my cousin was saying. Astrid rolled away, causing Snotlout to divert his attention away from the Gronkle, a near-fatal mistake. The fireball hit his shield, splintering it and sent him in a graceful arc across the ring. He hit the rock wall and slumped onto the ground, clearly knocked unconscious.

Two shots left.

'Snotlout, you're done!' said Gobber.

Astrid and I were the only ones left in the fight, so I decided to help her. I ran up to her side and announced my presence.

'So, its just you and me, huh?'

'Nope, Just you.' and with that, Astrid rolled away. A fireball hit my shield, dead centre. The metallic cover absorbed most of the shock, but the force was still enough to make the shield fly off my hand and tumble me over. I chased after my shield, which was rolling away from me.

'One shot left.' reminded Gobber.

The shield, however, must have hated me, because it took a sharp turn right and rolled out of reach. I hit the stone walls and sat down to face the Gronkle. It advanced on me. Cornered, helpless and defenseless, I could only star at the Gronkle's yellow eyes.

_This is just the first lesson and I screwed up so badly_.

The Gronkle opened its mouth widely. Remembering my encounter with the Night Fury, I hoped that the Gronkle will perhaps take mercy on me and let me go. But that did not seem to be the case. I could sense the fire building up in the dragon. It was already down to its final shot and it wasn't going to waste it.

_Oh, no!_

BANG!

I was temporarily deafened by the explosion. Hot ash landed on my head and shoulders. Pain seared through my body and I came to the conclusion that I was still alive. Phew, thank Odin.

'And that's six. Go back to bed you overgrown sausage!' said Gobber as he flung the Gronkle back to its (already opened) enclosure. As soon as the dragon was in, Gobber released the latch and the thick wooden log resumed its place: the hooks on the metallic gates. He turned to face us.

'You'll get another chance, don't you worry. Remember, a dragon will always, _always_, go for the kill.' he finished, pointing me out. 'All right! Class dismissed. You may go for your lunch right now!'

_Always go for the kill, huh?_

I decided to skip lunch and headed straight for the forest, since I wasn't really in the mood for lunch at all. I had remembered exactly where I had set the Night Fury free. I probably walked on and on for an hour or so. Finally, the broken pine tree came into view. Following the mud track, I came back to the place where I almost got killed by the dragon. The bola was still lying there. Picking up a rock, I pondered about what Gobber had said about dragons.

_Dragons will always, _always_, go for the kill._

'Then why didn't you?' I thought aloud, remembering how the Night Fury had let me off so easily. The most dangerous breed of all dragons had just let a free meal escape its paws? Or was it conscience? Are dragons smarter and much more intelligent than we gave them credit for? I looked at the canyon beyond the thick foliage. I remembered seeing the Night Fury flying off in that direction then plummeting back down into a gap in the canyon. Curiosity overtook my sense of fear and I started walking towards that direction. There was a few broken trees and scratch marks. Following them, I came to a rock wall that had a small crevice that looked like an entrance to another part of the forest. I wondered if anyone ever came here before. Ducking under a tree branch, I continued on the small crevice and was met with the most breathtaking sight in my entire life.

It was a small cove. The lip of the cove was surrounded by pine trees, their roots running into the cove's walls. Moss covered the top part of the cove. Green clashed with grey. The cove itself was no less magnificent. A huge lake dominated the surface. The water in it was so clear, I could see the fish swimming beneath the surface. A waterfall was positioned to the right, with gallons of water spilling down into the lake below. Several large boulders dotted the landscape. A huge gnarled tree stump divided the cove's walls into two parts. Birds flew past my line of vision, chirping merrily. Sunlight poured into the cove from above, creating a heavenly effect that made me want to jump into the cove and take a swim in that sparklingly clear water. I surveyed the cove with my eyes.

_Where is it?_

The hope within my chest shattered. If the dragon wasn't here then it would not be anywhere else. Disappointment, one might say.

_This is just plain stupid._

'This was stupid.' I muttered to myself. Then, I spotted some small, black dots on the floor. Upon closer inspection, they were revealed to be scales. Smooth yet cold to the touch. But from where? The answer to my question came almost immediately.

SWOOSH!

A dark mass flew past me and was scratching the cove's walls. It turned out to be the Night Fury. The dragon slipped and tried to grab on to the outcropping I was standing on but it failed to do that. Slipping back down into the cove, it grunted and spread out its wings, gliding to the far side of the cove. Using the log to propel itself, the Night Fury launched into the air. It flapped its wings hard... only to fall back down again. I moved closer to the edge of the outcropping. Resting my stomach on the cold stone floor of the outcropping, I watched in silent awe as the Night Fury continued on its mad attempt to get out of the cove. It tried a different approach this time, trying to take off vertically. Scrabbling on the stone walls, it fell back down. Then, I took out my notebook and started sketching an outline of the Night Fury. It tried to scale the stone walls again. Falling back down, it grunted.

The Night Fury was not very big. About half the size of a Monstrous Nightmare, I might even consider it small. And it is not totally black. Instead, it is a deep, dark blue color, with spots of grey here and there. Eight weird looking protrusions rim its neck. Scales are present on its hide. It has three pairs of wings. The main ones are the two, huge front wings. Each one has six wing segments. The middle ones are located just below the big ones, they have three segments. There is an even smaller pair of wings at the end of the tail. They have four segments. Then, a question popped into my mind.

'Why don't you just fly away?'

The dragon blew out a small fireball, sending pebbles dancing across the floor. The light generated by the blast illuminated the entire cove and I saw the problem immediately. Its left tail fin was missing. My fault. The Night Fury flew in a circle around the lake and almost made it to the top… only to fall back to the ground. It groaned and laid its head down on the ground in a desponded manner.

'I guess I've made your life miserable, didn't I?'

There was a slight ripple in the surface of the glistening water, catching the Night Fury's attention. It raised its head and stared at the water for quite some time. Then, it plunged its head abruptly into the lake. I saw a fish darting out of harm's way, settling itself on the other side of the lake. I sighed. If the dragon could not even get a decent meal for itself then it would be as good as dead. And the death of something because of you is not something you want on your conscience.

I dropped my charcoal stick out of carelessness. It clattered onto the floor of the cove, startling the dragon. It raised its head to face me. The look in its eyes weren't that of murder, but instead it was a rather curious expression. This got me to wonder whether the dragon had feelings or not. We probably looked at each other for hours on end. Then, the beast snorted and trotted away from the lake and into an overhanging ledge.

A flash of intense light caught my attention. That flash of light was followed by a deep rumbling.

_Oh, damn._

I was so busy staring at the dragon that I did not even realize that the weather had changed. The rain begun as a small drizzle, then…

_Whoosh!_

The storm cloud unloaded its load onto the ground. I had to stuff my notebook away and run for cover in the nearest shelter (underneath a tree) to prevent myself from getting drenched.

_Oh, the gods really hate me.  
_

* * *

Alright. That concludes chapter 3. Since Hiccup's hair was wet when he returned from that visit, we can conclude that he was caught in a storm.

Having said that, you can expect the next chapter to be up next week, after I am done with the school examinations. Please leave a review :)


	4. Reading The Dragon Manual

**Disclaimer:** I do not own 'How To Train Your Dragon' nor any of its characters. If I did then I would be the richest kid on the planet, but I do not see that happening to me.

I know that this chapter is shorter than the rest but just bear with me, okay? I sincerely thank all those who have reviewed my story. It kept me going.

Enough babbling, lets get on with the story, shall we?

* * *

Chapter Four: Reading The Dragon Manual

_Oh, for the love of Thor, would it just stop raining already?_

The storm didn't blow over until after seven o'clock in the night. Several trees had collapsed during the tempest. Storms here on Berk can get very violent. Some storms are strong enough to blow even a house away. I think they are called cyclones or something. Mind you, I did not enjoy standing under that tree. Throughout the entire time I was rooted there, praying that it would not fall on me while the storm took out its rage on the island.

I made my way to the Meade Hall the moment I got back to the village. They should be serving dinner right now. But, unfortunately, the gods must be wanting some entertainment while they were having dinner. I made my way up the steps and tripped over them somehow, promptly falling onto a pile of wet, damp mud … face first. I got up, wiped away the mud from my face and … slipped on another pile of mud. This time, my face made contact with the bronze knocker on the large, oaken doors that formed the entrance to the Meade Hall. I must have hit one of the sharp edges, because the next moment, pain shot up my face as a warm liquid started to trickle down my cheek. I got up and prodded the cut. Well, it wasn't that bad so I let the matter rest. However, the gods weren't done watching their dinner entertainment. Cursing my bad luck, I opened the oaken doors and stepped into the hall. Astrid and the others (including Gobber) were already there, occupying a bench to the far side of the hall, beside the huge hearth with the imposing golden dragon statue hanging from the ceiling. A few other happy diners were chatting away. Astrid must have noticed me, because she turned her head in my direction. I smiled, waved back at her and-

WHAM!

My right leg must've somehow got hooked onto the wooden bench. I fell flat onto my face, once again. A nasty crunching sound meant that I must have broken my nose. More pain. The stench of blood filled my nostrils as a warm liquid started to fill my nasal passage. I stood up, noticing that Astrid was no longer staring at me.

_Oh, great. Here I am trying to impress a girl and the gods want to mock me._

My face probably was a mix of blood and mud, not exactly a good image. Especially when you are trying to impress girls.

'Where did Astrid go wrong in the ring?' asked Gobber.

'I mistimed my somersault dive, it was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble.' answered Astrid in a matter-of-fact tone.

'Yeah, we noticed.' said Tuffnut.

'No, no, no. It was all right. That was _so _Astrid' commented my cousin. Astrid rolled her eyes and continued drinking from her goblet, clearly not interested in whatever Snotlout was saying.

_Great time to flirt with girls, cousin._

I spotted a plate of chicken drumsticks on the table and scooped it up. Snotlout noticed me and blocked me from getting the seat. I had an obnoxious feeling that I was not welcome at this table.

'Awesome face, Hiccup.' Snotlout scoffed contemptuously. 'Did you have a struggle with the _Night __Fury_?'

_Awesome joke, cousin. _I thought sarcastically.

'She right, you know. You have to be tough on yourselves!' Gobber noticed me coming in and continued with his talk. 'Where did Hiccup go wrong?'

_Thank you, Gobber. For giving others the opportunity to insult me._

I grabbed a cup of water on the table and grabbed it. Snotlout overlooked that action and knocked my arm with his body. Then, he turned to face me and gave me the 'too-bad' look. Scowling, I continued to the next table and settled down, putting my plate and drink onto the table.

_Oh! My notebook!_ I suddenly remembered. I searched frantically for it. Extracting it from the depths of my fur coat, I saw that it was mercifully dry.

_Oh, thank the gods._

Perhaps the gods weren't that bad after all. I put my notebook on the table, not wanting to risk wetting it.

'Uh, he showed up.' Ruffnut said.

_You got the 'showed-up' part right, but it wasn't my idea._

'He didn't get eaten.' said Tuffnut.

_You did not get eaten too._

'He's never where he should be.' said Astrid bluntly, her voice lacking any sign of emotion.

_Thank you, Astrid._ I thought sarcastically.

'Thank you, Astrid. You need to live and breathe this stuff!' Gobber was now strolling along the table. 'The Dragon Manual!'

_The- What?_

Gobber swept the plates and goblets off the table with one swipe of his hand. They landed on the floor with a clatter, spilling whatever unfinished food onto the stone floor. The blacksmith then slammed a thick, tattered leather book onto the table.

'This book is a compilation of everything we know about every dragon we know of.'

Fishlegs nodded his head.

_Book … compilation … every … dragon _… _Wait. Someone even bothered to write an encyclopedia on dragons?_

Perhaps the book would contain some useful tips that I could use for dragon training. I guess I would read it, if I got it first.

There was a distant rumble of thunder, a sign of an oncoming storm.

'No attacks tonight. Study up.' Gobber announced before leaving the hall.

I expected them to rush for the book. Instead they just sat there, sulking as if someone has just announced that there would be no dragon training tomorrow.

'Wait… You mean _read_?' complained Tuffnut. He let go of the knife that he was holding. It landed with a clutter on the wooden table.

_Yes, Tuffnut. Have you ever heard of a book?_

'While we're still alive?' added Ruffnut.

_Of course. You can't read if you are dead._

'Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?' said my cousin.

_So you can get a general knowledge of what you are supposed to kill, genius._

'_Oh!_ I've read it like about seven times…' began Fishlegs.

_Here we go again_.

'There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And there's this other one that buries itself really deep…' he chirped excitedly. Urgh, does that information regurgitator have got anything better to do?

'Okay, that sounds great.' Tuffnut said and clasped his fingers together in a silencing motion before continuing. 'If there was a chance I was going to read it…'

'But now…' drawled Ruffnut.

_But now, you'll have to read. Face it._

Snotlout decided to break the silence, 'All right. You guys go read, I'll go kill the stuff.'

_You were always the person who likes to make rash decisions._

He stood up from the bench and walked out of the entrance. The others followed suit. To my surprise, Astrid was still sitting there. Perhaps I should try to go impress her. This would be the perfect moment. Abandoning my dinner altogether, I walked over to her side. She sensed my presence and stood up.

'So I guess we'll share?' I asked hopefully. The reaction I got was not what I had expected. I guessed that Astrid might have stayed to read the book if not for me.

'Read it.' Astrid drawled, pushing the book towards me. Leaving the table, she hurried across the hall, headed straight for those very, very large oaken doors.

_Way to go, Hiccup_.

I guess I was brain dead from this encounter, because I was having difficulties articulating my words.

'Oh … wow … all mine then. If that's the case then … uh… I guess I'll see you guys, er… see you…' I stuttered incoherently.

SLAM!

Astrid had slammed the oaken doors together. The noise reverberated eerily through the spacious hall.

'… tomorrow.' I finished my sentence lamely. Sighing, I sat back down onto the bench. It was quite awhile before my brain could resume its normal functioning.

_Oh, why do you have to screw it up? It was perfect! Until I screwed up the entire thing! I must have sounded so stupid._

I slammed my fist on the wooden table in frustration, but regretted it immediately. The thud from the table wasn't accountable for all the noise.

'OUCH!' I cried out in agony. Now there was a pain in my pinky to go along with the anger, frustration and more pain from by broken nose. My day just officially went from being crappy to hopelessly damned. I sat on the bench for hours, staring at the ground before me, a million thoughts flashing through my mind.

_Damn the gods! Why does it always have to be me?_ I thought furiously. I am a human for Thor's sake! Not a god's plaything!

_Forget it, Hiccup. You're not within her league._

Once the last of the happy diners had left, the hall attendant snuffed out the torches along the wall. He was a big and burly man. Donning on a cotton clothing and wearing a bear-fur coat, he was not a man to be trifled with. He did not notice me until he was about to drench the large hearth with a large bucket of water.

'What you doin' here, Hiccup? You should be in bed!' he chided.

'Leave me alone, would you?' I snapped.

The attendant muttered something about insolence and snuffed out the last torch. He then walked out of the hall, closing the oaken doors behind him. Now the hall was pitch-black, except for some candles that were placed on top of each table. After sitting there for another seven minutes, I decided that sulking all day long wasn't going to help much, so I decided to do something. Now where is that accursed Manual? Oh, it is right in front of me. But first, I needed light. I went over to the end of this table and grabbed a candle from there, placing it on one side of the manual. I placed another candle at the other side of the book. They cast a yellowish glow over the light-brown book. The Dragon Manual was a rather old book, light brown in color (did I mention that?) and had several dark brown splotches here and there. The bindings looked as if they were about to come off. The pages were misaligned, with edges jutting out and pages overlapping each other. I had better treat this ancient book with care, or else I might have to rewrite the entire thing. The cover had a sketch of a dragon. I lifted the cover and read the first page. It was rough and was yellowed in many places.

'Dragon classifications. Strike class. Fear class. Mystery class. Mythological class. Poison class. Stealth class. Armor class…'

Anyways, the list covered the entire first page. I flipped to the second page. There were two words on the top of the page.

'Thunder Drum.' I read. Below the words was a sketch of a scaly dragon (like a fish), with a circular mouth that contained rows of sharp teeth. There were no legs, just two wings extending out of its body. It possessed a spiked tail that looked as if it could inflict some fierce damage if it made contact with human skin.

'This reclusive dragon inhibits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunder Drum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range.'

There was a drawing of a man in the process of being decapitated by the Thunder Drum's concussive roar, resembled by lines in the diagram. Aptly named, I thought. A single line of red words dominated the bottom of the second page, along with a drawing of a Viking running a sword through the Thunder Drum's belly.

'Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight.'

I flipped to the next page. The dragon was colored dark green and had two large wings, each of which had many segments. There were several information snippets on the different parts of the wing. There was another diagram below it that portrayed the Timberjack slicing through an entire forest with its wings outstretched.

'Timberjack. This gigantic creature possesses razor-sharp wings that can slice through full-grown trees. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight.'

_Okay. Timberjack, not so friendly. Got it._

I shivered at the thought of what the Timberjack's wings could do to a human. Slice through full-grown trees. Not a pretty sight.

Turning to the next page, I saw the sketch of a fat dragon (Gronkle?) with a long tail behind its back (okay, not a Gronkle). It seemed to be spouting some sort of liquid from its mouth. Following the line of the liquid, I saw that it ended with a man who seemed to be writhing in pain. I glanced at the dragon's name.

'Scaldren. Sprays scalding water at its victims…'

_So that was what Fishlegs was mentioning about earlier on._

'… Extremely dangerous…'

THRUM!

'AH!'

The noise resounded through the hall. I turned in the direction of the door, just in time to see the flash of lightning. It was pouring outside, just as I had expected. Panting, I turned the flimsy page with my hands.

The next page featured a long-horned dragon which was crouching down on all fours with its wings furled up. It had spikes running down its long tail. The dragon seemed to be spitting something out of its mouth.

'Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight.'

Sprays acid? No, thanks.

But I still hadn't found the dragon I was looking for. I flipped through the next few pages.

'Gronkle. Zippleback. The Skrill.'

Then the following dragon gave me the chills. It resembled a giant flying skeleton.

'… Bone Knapper. Whispering Death…'

I stopped as I inspected the Whispering Death. A little information snippet said that the Whispering Death could not roar, but its hiss was a sign of its presence. Its mouth was horrific, displaying row after row of sharp teeth. I wondered how it would feel like to be trapped in the creature's jaws. It was also a very long dragon, with two wings that were positioned very closely to its head. The Manual stated that it was extremely vicious and gave nightmares to the people that have confronted the dragon. Can't blame them either, I would totally freak out if I were faced with this dragon too. It was marked 'Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight' in red-colored runes, similar to the other dragons that I have read so far. I flipped the pages faster and faster, speeding through the descriptions.

'Burns its victims, buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside out…'

_Yuck._

With each page I flipped, the dragons became increasingly horrifying. There was one that had four heads, with some weird antenna-like protrusions sticking out of each of its four mouths. There was another page that depicted a dragon being killed through decapitation. It was very graphical.

'Extremely dangerous… extremely dangerous… Kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight.'

As I rapidly flipped the pages, something caught my eye. A blank page.

_Wait, what would a blank page be doing there?_

I flipped back to the page out of curiosity.

_Ah, yes. This is the page._

'Night Fury.' I read. There was no sketch of the Night Fury. And the page was almost blank… except for a few lines of words at the bottom of the page. 'Speed unknown. Size unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: hide and pray it does not find you.'

I grabbed my notebook from where I had last left and flipped it to the page that harbored my sketch of the Night Fury I had downed. I then placed it on the blank space (on the Dragon Manual) where the sketch of the Night Fury should have been. I re-read the page about Night Furies several times. It just didn't make any sense. Why would the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, the very same thing that had been terrorizing the village for years, spared my pitiful life?

_Your only chance: hide and pray it does not find you._

The Night Fury did find me. It was given a chance to kill me and yet it didn't. After two encounters with the 'monster', I was still alive and well. It let me go, scot-free, without as much as mutilating my face with its paws. I stared at the Dragon Manual, hoping that some information will surface from the book. And, amazingly, it didn't. Reading the Dragon Manual would be useless right now. It did not seem to make any sense at all.

Sighing, I collected my notebook and closed the Dragon Manual. I decided that I would call it a day and head home. The rain soaked my clothes. As I reached the front door of my vacant house, I tripped over a stone, landing face first onto the muddy soil (ARRGH!). Cursing my bad luck (did I do that before?), I entered the house. I pulled off my mud-soaked fur coat and threw it onto the floor, making a mental note to wash it the next day. I sat down on my chair in my room and propped my notebook against the wooden wall, which was flipped to the page with the sketch of the Night Fury, against the wall behind my table, and stared at it.

Why didn't it kill me when he got me in his paws? Surely he should have been thinking about food there and then? I mean, after being tied up in a bola and lying on your side for hours on end and then realizing you are going to die at the tip of a blade. Then, your would-be-killer decides to free you (April Fool! I am just joking with you!). I would have been pissed too, if we had switched roles.

My head was swarmed with countless of question regarding dragons. I doubted the credibility of the Dragon Manual. Is it even accurate anymore? Is the Night Fury not what we think they are? Are dragons good?

_Why? Why? Why? Why?_

_Why!_

I put one hand over my forehead. All this questioning was giving me a headache.

Lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a loud clap of thunder. I wondered if my father would be able to find the dragon once he came back from his hunt. After all, the dragon is a prisoner of this island. Surely a black dragon would attract the attention of dragon-slaying Vikings? I felt sick. I was tired of this constant rivalry between dragons and humans. If it could just all end, that would be good. I fell asleep after staring at the same picture for over ten minutes, with the pitter-patter of the rain in the background.

* * *

Gentle sea waves lapped the big wooden boats that traveled in a tight formation. The men and women on board the ships were very quiet, as if they expected an attack to come out of nowhere. The boats were large, with an intricately designed dragon head in the front. A huge blade was placed on the hull of the ship. Wooden shields flanked the side of the boat, each with its own designs drawn onto them.

They were sailing along a thick cloud of fog. It was so thick that it was virtually impossible to see through it. The Vikings call this place _Hellheim's Gate_, the hypothesized entrance to the Dragons' Nest. Tall geographic structures could be seen poking through the fog. A red bearded man was on the front of the ship that was leading the expedition team composed of three ships.

'I can almost smell them.' he said, driving his fist reasonably gently for a man of his strength. Yet, a dull thud could be heard emanating from the point of contact, which was the map.

'They're close.'

Stoick took a deep breath and said, with authority, 'Take us in.'

'Hard to port.' The ship started to turn left, straight for the fog.

'For Hellheim's Gate.'

'Hard to port!' the boatswain announced loudly such that the other ships could hear the instructions. The rest of the ships made a sharp turn left.

'Steady!'

And the entire expedition team plunged into the fog, knowing in their minds that it might be the last time they would ever be alive. A deathly silence settled over the place, without the humans shouting orders here and there. Then-

BANG!

'AHH!'

A silhouette of a dragon could be seen through the now-illuminated fog. Screams filled the air as dragons descended from all directions, raining down fireballs of death on the unlucky Vikings. Some of them disappeared into the depths of the ocean, while others got carried away. The men fought bravely until they met their demise. The expedition team parted; one of the ships turned left, another went right. The ship with the red bearded man maintain a steady course straight while he fought with intense fury. His stone mallet hit a dragon square on its head, causing it to plummet into the water. The man suppressed a groan as a rather large Nadder scratched his right arm. He stuck a blow right into the Nadder's snout.

Now, it was every man and woman for him or herself.

Survival of the fittest.

* * *

There you have it, Chapter 4. How did you find it?

Next update should be coming right up.

Remember, **_Review The Story_**, It is only fair, you know. Click 'Review this chapter' now. Its not that hard. Have a nice day :)


	5. The Gauntlet of Horrors

**Disclaimer:** I do not own 'How To Train Your Dragon'. Nor do I own Dreamworks Studios. I need the money, so please do not sue me. Otherwise I'd be in big trouble with both the law and my parents.

All right guys. This is Chapter 5. All right, I admit it, this chapter is awfully short. I am very sorry for that. But do not worry. The next chapter, Chapter 6: Forbidden Friendship (yes, Forbidden Friendship) will definitely be longer than this pathetically short chapter. You have my word on that matter.

Now, on with the chapter.

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Chapter 5: The Gauntlet of Horrors

I was in for a rather rude awakening the next morning. Somehow, I slipped off the chair and landed, head first, onto the wooden floorboard.

THUD!

'OUCH!'

Rubbing the bruise on my left temple, I stood up. The sun had risen. Birds were chirping happily outside the windows. If only my life could be as simple and carefree as the birds. I proceeded downstairs to wash my face and my mud-soaked fur coat. After which, I grabbed my axe and shield and headed for the front door, ready to start another day of Dragon Training sessions with Gobber.

How do you get to the arena? Simple. It is located to the north of the village. You go to the northern catapult tower and turn right. Cross the bridge and… Ta da, you've reached your destination. Did you manage to get there? No? Forget about it.

'Good morning, class! Did you all do your homework?' asked Gobber as we assembled just outside of the ring.

'Yes, we did.' lied the rest.

'Alright. Lets begin.' With that, Gobber opened the iron gate and brought us into the arena. It was still the same, except for one big difference. There were wooden fences set up everywhere. What could Gobber be up to? Gobber answered that question for me.

'I have set up a maze for ya. Today we will be testing your speed and agility. Are we ready?' he said with an evil smile. Uh-oh, this could not be good.

'Yes.' chorused the class.

'Good. I'll release the dragon from its cage and will watch your progress from the stands, you clear?'

Everyone (including me) answered with the usual 'yes' except for Snotlout, my _awesome_ cousin.

'Wait a minute. You mean you won't be down here?' he asked with a nervous tone.

'That is to give you more space. You'll need to be quick in order to win this dragon.'

Gobber walked out through the main entrance and walked up to the stands. He then headed in the direction of the dragon cages. Oh, did I mention that the dragon cages have two sets of levers? I guess I didn't. One of the levers is located at our level. The other is located at the stands, where Gobber was now standing. Both will open the cage and set the dragon free. Gobber gave us a thumbs up sign and pulled the lever. There was a loud _clank! _and then silence. We split up and headed further into the maze. The Kill Ring may not have been big, but it did seem big with the maze added. I saw Gobber resting his hands on the left side of the stands. I moved towards his direction. Once I found a comfortable spot that was not too far away from him, I bombarded him with questions… because I had a whole lot of questions on my mind, right now.

'You know, Gobber? I just happened to notice that the book had nothing on Night Furies. Is there like another book? Or a sequel? Perhaps a little Night Fury pamphlet?' I enquired.

There was a flash of intense yellow-white light and an explosion. I looked to my right and saw that the top of my axe had been blasted off. There was a frightening roar and I came face to face with… A Deadly Nadder. Nadders are perhaps the most colorful of all species of dragons. They have a blue hide with shades of red, green and yellow, forming intricate patterns across its body. If this one were not trying to kill me, I might even say that it was a beautiful creature.

'Focus, Hiccup! You're not even trying!' said Gobber lazily.

_Why does it always have to be me?_

The Nadder charged straight for me. After much consideration, I finally decided on the best escape route and scrambled in the opposite direction. Gobber continued with his lesson.

'Today is all about _attack!_ Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter.' he said nonchalantly, as if there wasn't anything happening below him.

_How in the name of Odin are we supposed to do that, Gobber?_

The Nadder emerged over the top of the wooden barrier next to me. There was a bone-chilling _chink! _as the Nadder erected the poisonous spines on its multi-colored tail. And I ducked behind my wooden shield as it fired the spines. Dull _thunks_ could be heard as the spines embedded themselves onto my shield. That would make a nice decoration. At least I would have something to show my dad when he comes home. The Nadder hopped off in the opposite direction and I could hear the distinctive _chink!_ once again. There was a dull thudding sound and I heard Fishlegs exclaim, 'I am really beginning to question your teaching methods!'

_Same here._

'Remember, all dragons have a blind spot. Find it, hide in it, and strike.'

Speeding down the gauntlet, I spotted Ruffnut and Tuffnut confronting the Nadder. Ruffnut was standing behind Tuffnut and both were trying to get out of the dragon's line of sight. They were doing a good job, that is until Ruffnut commented on Tuffnut's hair.

'Ergh… Do you ever bath?' I heard her say.

Tuffnut pushed her back and retorted, 'If you don't like it then just get your own blind spot.'

'How about I give you one?'

They pushed each other using their heads. Then, there was a hissing noise, a clear warning that the dragon was going to strike. Ruffnut and Tuffnut realized it and they both looked at the Nadder with fear. It opened its mouth and sprayed a generous portion of magnesium. Ruffnut grabbed Tuffnut to their left just in the nick of time.

'Blind spot, yes. Deaf spot, not so much.' Gobber chuckled evilly.

I ran to an open area just below Gobber and tried to keep a conversation going.

'So how does one sneak up on a Night Fury, sir?'

'No one has ever met one and lived to tell the tale, now get in there!' Gobber shouted exasperatedly.

_Yeah. No one except for me._

'I know, I know, but hypothetically speaking…' I began.

'Hiccup.' said a soft, feminine voice. _Astrid's_ voice. I turned around and saw her crouching at a corner with Snotlout behind her. She motioned for me to get down, so I did. She looked over the edge of the wooden barrier and pulled back her head almost instantly. That meant that the Nadder must be behind that barrier. Astrid did a forward roll with her shield. She made it to the other side. Snotlout followed suit. And me, not wanting to be left behind, had no choice but to follow them. I _almost_ made it to the other end. The metal part of my shield got stuck in a crack on the stone floor, stopping me indefinitely. The Nadder, sensing me, jerked its head in my direction. Adrenaline and fear took over and I ran faster than I ever did. I was rounding the bend as the Nadder snapped its jaws on the spot where I had been just half a second ago. Astrid and Snotlout fled in the opposite direction. Somehow, we ended up meeting each other again. They were standing at the other end of the passage.

'Watch out, babe. I'll take care of this.' said Snotlout. He flung his club down a narrow alleyway (where the Nadder was). I guess he missed, because he came out with a totally irrelevant excuse which was always a tell-tale sign that he did something wrongly.

'The sun was in my eyes, Astrid. What do you want me to do? Block out the sun?' he uttered.

_The sun is currently facing the opposite direction, genius_.

A blast of magnesium fire sent them running in my direction. I followed suit. There was a dull thunking sound and the floor shook. The Nadder let out a roar and the wooden barrier in front of me splintered, revealing the dragon's whereabouts. I took a sharp turn left and ran with all my might down the gauntlet.

'I can do that but I don't have enough time.' I could hear my cousin's voice over the din.

The Nadder was leaping from wooden barrier to wooden barrier, toppling some in the process.

'They probably sleep in the day time, right? Like... uh, like a... cat!' Snotlout's voice rang out.

After a few skillful maneuvers, I got close to Gobber again.

'Hey, has anyone ever seen a napping dragon?' I asked, in hope that Gobber would at least say something.

Gobber obviously wasn't listening to whatever I've got to say. He called out my name (well, at least he did say something) in a rather lazy manner, 'Hiccup! Mind your surroundings!'

CRACK!

'_Hicccccuuuuuupppp!_' cried a frantic voice. I turned around just in time to see Astrid, along with an entire section of the wooden barrier, come crashing down… on me.

_Why does it always have to be me?_ (did I mention this before?)

Astrid landed right on top of me. As the dust settled, I noticed that we were in tangled together in a rather awkward position. She was lying on top of me, face down. Her soft hair caressed my face as she struggled to get up.

'_Ooooh_… Love on the battlefield.' I quipped.

'She could do better.'

Astrid got out of this rather tricky situation by skillfully un-entangling us. She got up to a standing position. But there was still just one tiny little problem: her axe was stuck on my shield. She tugged at it uselessly. As the Nadder smashed through the last of the wooden barriers. She tugged at the axe with much more urgency. The Nadder charged for us. If Astrid did not manage to get the axe out soon, we'll be dead.

'Let me… Why don't you…' I stuttered. Her tugs were getting more and more forceful. If she continued doing this I might just get my hand ripped off in the process.

After much experimentation, Astrid finally found a way round the problem. Using my face as a support, she pulled the shield off my hand and swung the entire thing at the incoming Nadder. There was a loud _clunk! _as the metal made contact with the dragon's hide, sending splinters and the other parts of the shield flying in all directions. The Nadder groaned, shook its head, and collapsed onto the floor, clearly unconscious.

'Well done, Astrid.' Gobber praised.

But Astrid wasn't through with me yet. She turned around and scolded me as if I were a misbehaving child. 'Is this some kind of a joke to you?' she said sternly. 'Our parents' war is about to become ours. Figure out which side you're on.' She said, pointing her axe at my throat for emphasis. With that, she walked off without a second glance. The rest of the class followed suit, leaving the arena empty except for Gobber and me. Gobber came down to the arena and started talking to me.

'What's wrong, Hiccup? You look as if something's bothering you.' he asked.

'Nothing.' I answered, deciding that it would be too risky telling Gobber the truth about the dragon. Much to my relief, Gobber ended the talk soon enough.

'Alright. You go for lunch, I'll clean up this mess.' With that, my master shoved me out of the arena and shut the iron gates behind me. I walked sulkily back home. I had just screwed up another attempt to please Astrid. Why must things turn out to be so difficult? I kicked the wooden front door of my house. It creaked on its hinges. Sighing, I sat down on the wooden steps. I pondered over Astrid's words.

_Is this some kind of a joke to you? _Of course the whole thing is not a joke to me. I was just commenting on how awkward we looked in that position. Can't you stand a joke once in a while?

_Our parents' war…_ Huh, war? This whole thing did not even make sense anymore. We could just move out of the area and find another island to settle down, can't we? Then we won't have to put up with all the dragon raids that happen on a daily basis.

_Figure out which side you're on…_ I wasn't even sure whose side I wanted to be on right now. I wished there was a neutral side, or, even better, no sides at all. Dragons and Vikings living in harmony together.

_Dragons will always go for the kill_. Well, a dragon defied that rule. And it happened to be condemned as the deadliest dragon that ever existed. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. So why didn't the dragon kill me? Perhaps it was different from the rest of the dragons. Like me. Or was it because we have the same eye coloration? Or were we both scrawny? Or did the dragon's conscience say otherwise, like my conscience had when I was about to plunge the knife into its body?

_What the hell am I thinking about? Comparing a dragon to myself. Talk about going mad._

The Night Fury had the chance to kill me. After all, I was the one who caused it to suffer. It was fully within its own rights to end my pitiful life. An eye for an eye. So why didn't it?

_Why?_

_Why?_

_WHY?_

I flung open the front door in frustration. My mind was overloaded with too many questions. Slamming the door behind me, I sat down beside the fireplace. I put a hand to my forehead, sighing in the process.

'Why indeed.' I muttered to myself.

I knew that the only way I was ever going to uncover the answer was to get up close and personal with the beast itself. But how? Sure, it had spared my life once, but that is no guarantee that it would do so a second time. This time I would have to do something else. I searched desperately for the answer. Suddenly, I spotted some salted fish hanging by the side of the fireplace. Somehow, the answer struck me.

'Fish!' I exclaimed as I snapped my fingers together. The beast would definitely be hungry by now. If I could just get some fish and feed it to the dragon, I could placate it good enough for me to study its behavior. But where to get the fish? I looked around my house. There was nothing by dried and salted fish. I shook my head. The dragon would definitely _not_ want preserved fish as a meal. I did not fancy them myself either. I looked around, thinking of one possible source of fresh fish. Fish for it myself? No, definitely not. I did not even have a fishing rod. I had lost my old one ages ago, during a rather memorable fishing trip with my father. But do not get me started on _that_.

_Oh my gods. Why am I thinking about fishing trips with my father at a time like this?_

_Wait a minute... Fishing... Boats... Ah! Thats it! The harbor!_

The idea struck me like a bolt of lightning. If I could go down to the harbor and steal some fish, then, ta-da! A free fish & chips. Grabbing my shield, I made my way down to the harbor.

_Please let this work,_ I prayed silently as I inched towards an open basket that was filled with fish. I had never stolen from someone else before, and thus I was very nervous on this first attempt to steal. My worst fear was that someone would come poking their nose into the storage warehouse and that would be the end of me. I remembered what the Viking had told me.

_If you behave like a bad boy, I'll make sure your father hears about it._

I shuddered at the thought of what my father would do to me if he hears about my little misdeed. I'd figure that he would be fuming mad and I'd get ripped into a thousand shreds. Shredded Hiccup, anyone?

Looking around to make sure that there was no one watching, I reached my hands into the slimy contents of the basket. It wasn't easy getting a grip on the fish with all this slime around. Finally, after minutes of finger-fumbling, I managed to get hold of a fish. I pulled out my hand to reveal that I had "caught" a haddock. Just as well. Looking around, I saw, to my relief, that there was no one around. I made a mad dash for the forest, just in case I was being spotted by someone. When I had made it to Raven Point, I took a sharp turn right in the direction of the cove.

The little majestic-looking cove was still there. I squeezed through the small crevice and walked onto the overhanging ledge. I looked around in desperation. Surely the Night Fury must be here somewhere. I mean, a dragon does not have the ability to disappear at will, does it? However, as impossible as it sounds, the Night Fury did exactly just that.

_The Night Fury must be hiding somewhere, _I thought to myself. I scanned the cove once again. Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. My confidence was beginning to waiver.

_This isn't making any sense. First, the dragon spares my life. Then, it falls into this cove and disappears. Third, I come here and the Night Fury sees me for the second time. And I am still alive and breathing. Fourth, I come here again and the dragon seems to have disappeared into thin air once again. What exactly is going on?_

I looked at the fish. It hung from my hands. Its dead eyes contained no emotion. My arm was starting to ache from the exhausting effort I had made into lugging this heavy fish all the way to this mysterious cove. Anyways, I wasn't going to let my time and efforts go to waste. _Now how do I get down?_ I scanned the cove for any possible entry point. There were none. Then, I spotted a little path, formed by rocks leading off my right side. I took a closer look and saw that it lead down to a small crack between two huge boulders that would lead me into the cove. It was quite steep.

_Come on, you're a Viking. A steep stone stairway would not hinder you, would it?_

Taking a deep breath, I inched my way down the small stone path. I repeated my mantra over and over again in my head.

_I am a Viking. I am a Viking. I am a Viking._

I slipped on some loose pebbles and tumbled the rest of the way down, if it were not for my shield, I would have sustained a rather bad head injury. I stood up and faced the small entrance to the cave, shield at the ready. I hesitated for a moment. Would the Night Fury kill me this time? I could not guarantee my safety this time round. If something went wrong... I shuddered at the thought. I was about to take a step back into safety when a small, soft, soothing voice at the back of my head called out,

_Follow your heart._

It gave me the strength to bring myself to do this once and for all.

Excitement, fear, anxiousness, impatience and more fear gripped my stomach as I took a cautious step towards the crack. I draped the fish over my right shoulder to make both my hands available for the easy maneuvering of my shield should it be needed. The vast expanse of the cove spread out beyond the pathetic little crevice I was currently hiding behind. The answer to solving this age old battle between the dragons and the Vikings lay out there. I just know it.

_Its now or never._

And so we go.

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End of Chapter 5 (Did this sentence come too quickly?)

So, we are currently done with five chapters. There will be more to come. So stay tuned.

As always, R&R!


	6. Forbidden Friendship

**Disclaimer:** No, I do not own Toothless nor do I own Hiccup. All other characters featured below do not belong to me. 'How To Train Your Dragon' is not my property, its Dreamwork's.

I apologize if I have kept you guys waiting. I've had exams to deal with. Now that it is over, I can finally get back to continuing the story.

All right guys, long chapter for you. This is chapter 6, a.k.a Forbidden Friendship, which also happens to be my favorite part of the movie. The music, emotion and scene was simply amazing. I could not possibly put it down in words, but I tried my best. So, I really hoped that this chapter did the scene some justice.

A/N: I will be referring to Toothless as 'he' or 'him' from this chapter onwards.

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Chapter Six: Forbidden Friendship

I tip-toed to the crevice. It wasn't that big. Hoping that I would get out of this alive, I walked over to the entrance. Holding the haddock by its gill flap, I tossed it. It flew through the crevice and landed on the round with a soft thud. I looked around, hoping that the Night Fury would fall for the bait. But alas, that was not the case. Being me, I did not give up so easily. If the Night Fury was unwilling to show up, Iwould make it show up. I concluded that the crevice would be large enough for me to passe through along with my shield. I guess there was a slight miscalculation. My shield got jammed in between the damned crevice. I tugged at it uselessly.

_Come ON!_

I gave it one last futile attempt at a tug. The shield creaked in resistance.

_DAMN IT!_

I sighed in defeat. Just my stupid luck. My last means of defending myself was lost. But I had to move on having come this far. Taking a look, I saw that the fish was still untouched. Reminding myself of the reason I was here, I proceeded to the spot where the fish had landed and picked it up by its gill flap. Taking each step with caution, I wandered around the small little cove, searching for the Night Fury.

_Come out, little dragon. Come out and play._

My confidence shattered as I scanned the barren landscape in front of me. Where could this elusive beast be? Surely a black dragon could not be able to blend in with the green colored environment. It would be almost impossible for him to hide. I screwed up my face in concentration as I thought of all the possible places the dragon could be hiding in, but all my efforts came to naught. I sighed. I was only here for less than five minutes and I had failed miserably. The dragon had indeed disappeared into thin air. Suddenly, I got this uneasy feeling that something was watching me. I had a sneaking suspicion as to where the Night Fury was. I turned around and saw the said dragon perched on top of a boulder. I let out a small gasp as my heart pounded against my chest. Would he kill me? He leapt from the top of the boulder and landed on a spot in front of me, crouched on all fours with his wings poised up. Sniffing the air, he cocked his head and growled softly at me.

_Gods, I must be crazy. Feeding a dragon?_

Fear and anxiety gripped my stomach as I stretched out my hand as far as it could go. The dragon hesitated and stared at me, as if it were sizing me up, seeing if I was a threat. In the end, he decided that it was safe to approach me. He crawled towards me, with his eyes trained on the fish I was holding in my outstretched arm.

_That's it. Come closer._

The entire exchange was going well until his pupils darted away from the fish and he jumped back away from me, his pupils turning into narrow silts. Something told me that I had brought along an unwelcome visitor. A snarl escaped the dragon's throat and I retreated in panic, fearing that I had done something wrong.

_What did I do?_

Then I remembered. My knife, of course! I pulled back my fur coat to reveal the wretched metallic object. The dragon snarled at the sight of it. I reached for the hilt of my knife, but quickly jolted my hand away from it when the dragon let out a warning, muscles tensed. It was a sign that he was going to pounce_. _I had seen to many lions doing that to not know.

_No. Its okay. I am not going to hurt you. I am just going to remove it._

I slowly pulled the knife out of my tool-belt without breaking eye contact with the dragon. If anything went wrong I would be dragon munch. He flinched a little as I held out the weapon at arms length, trying as hard as I could to make me look as if I was not a threat to the dragon.

_See? I am not going to hurt you. If you could just let me dispose of this, no one is going to get hurt._

I released my grip on the knife and it fell to the ground.

_Clatter!_

The Night Fury flinched once again. I wondered if that was enough to pacify the agitated dragon. If it didn't then I would not have any means of self-defence. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The Third would be history. My mouth went dry as I broke out in cold sweat. My heart was fit to burst out of its cage. It went _thump! thump! thump!_ as I watched the Night Fury. He was staring at the knife with such intense hatred that I was surprised that the knife did not burst into flames. Deep, low grumblings escaped the dragon's throat as he swung his head to my right, as if he were asking me to fling the knife to somewhere else. I guessed that if I wanted to get out of this situation alive then I would have to play along.

_You are asking for too much, dragon._

I lifted up the knife with my right leg and deftly flung it into the lake. It hit the water with a gentle _plop! _and sunk out of sight. Great. My last means of protection is currently at the bottom of the lake.

_Please let this work._

Actually, on hindsight, it wasn't a very good idea to do that. It could have been a trick of the Night Fury to make me get rid of the weapon and then he will proceed to chomp my head off. I gulped as more sweat trickled down my face. The dragon stared at the lake with an almost surprised look. Perhaps he was wondering why I had done such a thing when a normal Viking would charge straight for him. Then, he turned his gaze on me and his pupils dilated. He flicked his ear. I could have sworn that the dragon looked like a dog. A huge, black, several hundred pound dog. I could not hide my surprise. A simple gesture and that's all? You throw away all your means of self-protection and you can turn the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself into a harmless creature? It could have been a trick of the dragon's nonetheless. By luring me in with its cuteness and then going into eating mode. I decided that I would risk it and go ahead with feeding the dragon.

_All right. Just feed the dragon the fish. Here goes._

Slowly but surely, I extended my arm and offered the dragon some haddock. My heart raced as the dragon proceeded towards me, this time taking much more cautious steps. I found myself praying in my head that all would go well.

The Night Fury lowered its head until it was level with my hands. I had expected to see rows and rows of razor sharp teeth. But when he opened his mouth, I made a startling discovery that he had no teeth, only small little slits that ran through his gums.

_Okay, that's new._

'Toothless…' I thought aloud. I continued with a frown, clearly confused at the lack of teeth. Hadn't I seen fangs on the day I had so nearly got my head chomped off? Was I hallucinating or could it be something else? Well, the Night Fury answered my question '… I could have sworn you had no…'

CHINK!

At an instant, a row of short, razor sharp teeth shot out of the slits. He grabbed the fish from my hands and ate it all in three bites and I jumped back in fear and surprise. So, the Night Fury had retractable teeth? Interesting. The dragon licked his lips in satisfaction as I stood there, still shocked by the dramatic appearance of teeth and for the fact that I had just fed a dragon, when all we Vikings do is to prevent the dragons from eating our livestock.

'… teeth.' I finished. I made a mental note to record that down in my notebook later on.

The dragon looked at me quizzically with those huge green eyes of his. He must have wanted more fish, for he advanced on me, sniffing me out and purring at me along the way. I had to stagger backwards to prevent being knocked down.

_I should have brought more fish. _I thought regretfully.

'Ahh… No, no. No, no.' I tripped over my own legs and found my back against one of the boulders in the cove.

'I don't have any more!' I leaned back further. If the Night Fury was going to eat me, then there was no stopping it. Here I was, trapped and defenceless. To the dragon, I would just be a free meal that had just strolled into its territory almost casually. So the whole thing had been a setup. The dragon hides behind the boulder. I walk in. He emerges. I give him the fish. He spots the knife. I get rid of it. He advances on me. He eats the fish. Then he corners me. Those green eyes stared into mine, just like last time. He would kill me here and then. And that would be the end of Hiccup. I half-expected it to bite my head off, but instead, he raised his head and made a strange gagging noise.

_Err... What exactly are you trying to do?_

His mouth fell open, along with half of the haddock that I had just fed him. It landed onto my lap with a thud. Dragon drool stained my shorts. Ick.

'Errgh.' I said, disgusted. Trust me, you would not want a pound of squish mixed with dragon drool on your lap.

The dragon mimicked my sitting position, surveying me expectantly with those green eyes of his. I carefully picked up the fish from my lap and sat up straight, pulling my knees closer to my chest. Well, at least I am not dead yet. But, then again, this could be part of the trap. Am I supposed to do something? I could not figure out anything to do with that disgusting piece of haddock. I sat there, hoping that the dragon would give me some hints about what to do next. We probably sat there staring at each other for quite a long period of time.

_Er… hello?_ I looked at him questioningly. He seemed to have got my message. The dragon looked at the fish and back at me. _Oh, gods, _I groaned inwardly, knowing what the dragon wanted me to do. He was asking me to _eat _the fish. I brought the fish to my mouth and gingerly took a bite out of it. It was disgusting! The dragon drool mixed with the fish gave it the consistency of paste. And the taste wasn't that great either. Maybe I could hide the fish in my mouth and spit it out while it was not looking.

'Mmm…' I faked, offering the fish to the dragon. He perked up his ears, then mimicked a swallowing action.

_Damn, _I cursed. Dread enshrouded me. I groaned inwardly as I dropped my hands onto my lap. _Oh, goddamn it._ Looks like I wasn't going to get away from this after all. As I did not want to offend the dragon, my only choice was to swallow the accursed goo. Admitting defeat, I had to muster all my courage in order to force the slimy, tasteless goo (yuck!) down my throat. Trust me, it is not as easy as it seems. I choked on it the first time round, only managing to swallow it moments after. I gagged on the goo again and I had to put a hand over my mouth to prevent the goo from spilling out of my mouth. Shivers ran down my spine as the fish paste tickled the back of my throat. I really hoped that it would suffice for now. I did not want to have to take another bite of the piece of slimy fish and swallow it once again. As I looked up to face the dragon once again, I hoped against hope that he would not ask me to take another bite. To my relief, the dragon only smacked his lips, as if asking if I had enjoyed the fish.

_Yup. I certainly did._

I gave him a little forced smile to show that I was okay (but I did not enjoy the fish).

The dragon narrowed his eyes, as if he were studying my face. Then, his face twitched and, very slowly, a smile crept across his lips, exposing his toothless mouth. I looked at him with awe. A smiling dragon was not something you'd see every day. All this while we had been seeing dragons that invaded our home, with a look of fury on their face. We only knew dragons as vicious, fire-breathing monsters. There wasn't a line in the Dragon Manual that said, '_This dragon can imitate smiles._' Of all the things we knew about dragons, this was definitely not on the list.

_Is it okay if I touched his snout?_

What did a dragon's snout feel like? Does it feel rough? Or smooth? Is it hot, warm or cold? These questions flooded my mind and I found myself on my feet. I set down the fish on the ground beside me and extended my arm in an attempt to touch him. I wobbled unsteadily on my foot. But, as my hand got closer to his snout, the dragon's smile faltered and his growled at me, baring his sharp, pointed teeth. I recoiled, expecting him to pounce on me and start ripping me into pieces. But, instead of doing that, he launched himself into the air and landed with a thud on the other side of the lake.

I could not help but watch in awe. The dragon was special. He had so many chances to kill me, to eat me. And yet, he defies the 'eat-on-sight' law that dragons normally uphold. I bet that he must have been really hungry right now. So why didn't he eat me? Is he different from the rest of the dragons? Did we misunderstand Night Furies?

Curiosity and excitement took over me. They said that curiosity killed the cat. But I know that I could trust this dragon with my life. After all, I had survived all encounters with him. Walking over to the spot where the dragon was resting, I saw that he was scorching the ground with his blue flame. There was a sizzling noise as a circle of fresh charcoal emerged amongst the lush green ground. The dragon then rested his bulk on the charred ground. Just as he was about to sleep, he spotted a bird that was flying away from him. There was a look of longing in his eyes, as if he missed the comfort of the air. I settled myself at a considerable distance away from him. His eyes followed the bird and they eventually landed on me. I grinned and waved at him, with my heart thumping. The dragon laid back his ears, snorted in a contemptuous fashion, turned his head away from me, and positioned himself in such a way that when he wrapped his tail around his body, the tail fin covered his face completely. Only one fin remained.

I was so close to the dragon. Heck, the last time I was this close was when the Nightmare was about to swallow me whole. This time, however, was under different circumstances. I wanted to touch the dragon. It was so tantalizing. How did a dragon's hide feel like? I do not know. But I do know that there is only one way to find that out. I stretched my hand out in another attempt to touch the dragon. He must have sensed me coming, because he pulled back his tail and a snort escaped his throat. My heart jumped and I leapt up onto my feet. That was very scary. Asleep or not asleep, this dragon could chomp my head clean off its shoulders. I was happy with where my head was currently positioned, so I made the wise choice of keeping my distance with the dragon. I slowed my pace and settled down on one of the nearby boulders. I watched as he lumbered off in the direction of the old, gnarled tree. I sighed. After all, I was the reason he had ended up in this cove, unable to fly away. I took out my notebook and started drawing sketches of the dragon. I studied him from a distance, drawing various sketches of him. Once I got bored of that, I stashed away my notebook in the safety of my fur coat and began tracing lines onto the sandy ground.

_If only my dad could see this. Then, the Dragon Manual could do with some extra words._

As I drew, I wondered what I could call this dragon. Since it was my fault that he ended up in this state, I decided that I would take some responsibility and nurse it back to health. But I needed a name which I could call the dragon by. Bucky? No. Harold? No. I sat there, thinking in desperation for a name. Then I remembered the way the dragon had smiled at me. A toothless smile… toothless…

Toothless.

The name burst into my head almost immediately.

_All right, dragon. I'll call you Toothless from now on._

I turned around and saw Toothless hanging upside down from a tree branch by his tail. So Night Furies can sleep upside down like bats too? Interesting. I recorded that bit of information down on my notebook and continued drawing in the sand. I must've went on like that for a few hours. Because when I finally ran out of ideas on what to draw next, the sky was turning orangey-red, which meant that evening was fast approaching. I decided that I would draw a sketch of Toothless' face before going home for the day. I drew the outline and felt someone (or something) beside me, on my right side. I turned my head slightly (to my right, duh) and discovered that the "presence" was just Toothless.

_Oh, so it is you._

The image of his eyes came into my mind and I added them to the face's outline, completing the sketch. Then, an unexpected noise made me turn in the direction of the noise (duh).

_CRACK!_

Toothless returned to my side, with an uprooted tree clamped tightly in between his jaws. He set the splintered end down onto the sandy floor and started drawing. He went on and on, intersecting the previous lines with newer ones. The dragon swept across the ground and the tree branch hit me on the head (ouch!). Toothless paused for a while and glanced at me, then went on with his artwork. Finally, he ended this mad drawing rampage by running a curved line through the right side of the drawing. Crouching down on his hind legs, Toothless surveyed his piece of art with those big, green eyes of his and nodded his head, as if he were satisfied. Only then did I stood up. Looking around at the tangle of lines, it took me a while to figure out what the drawing meant. Toothless was drawing a sketch of _me_. Although it was a rather bad sketch of me.

_Oh, Toothless. You never fail to surprise me._

I accidentally stepped on one of Toothless' lines and he growled threateningly at me. Shocked, I instinctively released my leg. Was the dragon telling me not to step on his drawing? I decided to test that out. I put my leg on his drawing again. Toothless returned that action with a louder snarl than the last. Releasing my feet once again, Toothless stopped growling. I put my feet on the line again and Toothless responded to that action with a growl, this time it was very loud, as if he were warning me of the consequences of destroying his art. I lifted my leg, earning a purr from the dragon. I hypothesized that if I could not step on the lines, I could cross it? I tried that out, putting my foot across the line. I looked up and saw that Toothless did not snarl, instead, he looked at me with an encouraging look. Smiling to myself, I now understood.

_Avoid the lines._

Then, without realizing what I was doing, I proceeded to the next empty space. And the next. And the next. And the next. What kept me going? I do not know. I just remember setting my foot onto whatever empty space I could find. I took a step left, then right, then back left again and… I realized that I had ran out of lines. I felt a short puff of air behind my back. Turning around, I saw that the Night Fury was right behind me. I have never gotten this close to a dragon before. Wait, correction. I _had_ gotten this close to a dragon before. That was when I was about to get _eaten_ myself. I extended my arm, in hopes of touching his snout. I didn't care much about being eaten right now. Right now, I wanted the truth. Are dragons all that bad, or did we miss something? After ages of going at war with the dragons, I desperately wanted to know the answer to that question. And the answer was here, inches away from my hand. Toothless bared his teeth as my hand came closer.

_No. Its okay. I mean no harm. I just want to know._

I closed my eyes and turned my head away from the dragon to show that I was no threat. Toothless let out a small growl again as my hand moved even closer. Then, the growlings stopped. For a few moments there was silence. I moved my hand closer to the dragon. My heart was pounding against its prison. A small part of me wanted to pull my hand back and run away from this cove. Another part of me assured me that it was okay to touch the dragon. He had not eaten me or hurt me in any way. I could trust this dragon with my life. Now, it was up to the Night Fury to consent. It would either be that he trust me enough to let me make contact with him or to bite my hand clean off my wrists. Time itself seemed to slow down as my hand hung there, waiting for the dragon on the other side to respond.

_Please, just answer my question. Will you, Toothless?_

As if on cue, something warm and soft pressed against the palm of my hand. I stiffened. Could this be it? Trembling with fear and excitement, I raised my head slowly, and let out a small gasp. The entire scene that I was seeing seemed so surreal. I had actually touched a dragon's snout! And a Night Fury of all dragons! It was as if my world had been turned upside down. I have been hearing stories of how evil Night Furies were all my life and one of them had proved us all wrong.

_He... he just let me touch his snout._

The Dragon Manual is going to need some _serious_ makeovers.

_Thank you for answering my question_.

Toothless opened his eyes and stared at me through those huge, black pupils, and at the same time twitching his nose, as if he were making sure that it was still there. Then, he gave a snort and flew off in the other direction. I stood there, blinking my eyes several times to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating in any way. I looked at my palms for reassurance. Yup, they were still there, intact, present in flesh and bone. I was still alive, breathing, feeling, thinking, questioning. Having done that spot-check, I let the truth sink in.

_Everything we know about you guys, is wrong!_

Toothless settled down beside the old, gnarled tree and rested his head on top of his crossed paws. I looked at him. Shaking my head, I thought of how he had let me touch his snout just like that. A Night Fury, supposedly the most dangerous breed of dragons, had let a scrawny little Viking touch his snout. Then, I smiled broadly. I felt happier than the happiest man on Earth. We had grown up to be taught to hate dragons for what they were and now, a Night Fury had proved them all wrong. But most importantly, I had gained a friend.

_A true friend._

I decided that I would call it a day and head back to the village before the villagers start to suspect something. I said farewell to the dragon.

'I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Toothless. Sleep tight.'

I set off on a slight trot back to the village, humming a tune to myself in the process. I spotted my (still stuck) shield and decided that I would try to remove it again (stubbornness issues, you know). This time I managed to get it out of the crevice without experiencing any resistance. Weird, isn't it? My shield only renders its services to me when it is not needed. I chuckled at the irony and continued on the way.

* * *

Night had fallen over Berk when I had finally reached the village. The majestic pale moon stared down on Berk. I opened the front door to my house and set the shield down to the floor. I yawned and was about to go to bed when Gobber poked his head into my house through the front door.

'Where have you been, Hiccup? Dinner's over. Well, anyways, we're having supper on top of one of the watch towers. Wanna come?' he asked.

'Yeah, sure.' I answered. I made my way to the front door and joined Gobber. He led my through a maze of wooden houses, finally coming to a stop before the said watchtower.

'Up you go. Take the ramp. Proceed straight to the top of the watchtower, you'll find your mates gathered up there.'

A blast of cool air hit my face as I reached the top of the tower. It sure was quite windy up here. The rest of the training group sat in a circle around the hearth, roasting chicken. I sat down on one of the empty places as Gobber emerged from the ramp. He sat down beside me and Astrid (she was on the other side). Gobber must have been through the middle of one of his stories, because he continued his story at a point where it would have been weird to start a story with.

'…And with one twist, he took my hand and swallowed it whole!' he proclaimed dramatically. 'I saw the look on his face… I was delicious. He must've passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg.' Gobber finished, showing the training group his prosthetic wooden leg for emphasis.

'Isn't it weird think that your hand was inside of a dragon?' asked Fishlegs.

_Yeah, I'd be disgusted._

'… like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed the dragon from inside by crushing its heart or something.' he suggested. Snotlout decided to comment again (does he ever stop commenting?).

'I swear I'm so angry right now,' he shook the stake he was holding on to for emphasis. 'I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful feet. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight… _with my face_.'

_Yeah, right. I'd like to see you do that, cousin._

Gobber was in disagreement with Snotlout. He tore out the wing of chicken he was currently roasting and shook it for emphasis on what he was about to say next.

'No, its the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away.'

What Gobber said next made me freeze.

'_A downed dragon is a dead dragon._'

_I did this._

It was my fault that Toothless had lost his ability to fly. He was, in all prospects, a dead dragon. Remembered how he can't even get a decent meal for himself, I was flooded with guilt. I shuddered to think of what would happen if the Vikings managed to find Toothless. Swords, spears, arrows... It was enough to give me the chills.

_No. You cannot let that happen._

Clearing my mind, I decided that I would have to set things right. I would help Toothless regain his ability to fly. I would help my friend. I would have to finish what I had started. Hope, determination and authority took over and I found myself on my feet with only one thing on my mind.

Gobber let out a yawn and addressed the training group.

'All right, I'm off to bed. You should be too. Tomorrow we get to the big boys… '

I silently sneaked off the side of the watchtower and proceeded down the ramp.

'… slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who will win the honor of killing it?'

_Please don't let it be me, _I prayed silently.

'Its gonna be me. Its my destiny, see?' proclaim Tuffnut cockily. Fishlegs let out a gasp and said, 'Your mom let you get a tattoo?'

'Its not a tattoo, its a birthmark.' Tuffnut countered.

'Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth and that was never there.' said Ruffnut skeptically.

'Yes, it was! You just never saw me from the left side.'

_Yeah, like I will believe it._

I hit the bottom of the ramp and from that point on, whatever conversation my pals up there were having were reduced to muffles. Filled with a sense of determination and authority, I took a right turn after crossing the bridge and headed in the direction of the forge.

_Believe it or not, I am going to give you a new tail, Toothless._

Setting down my notebook, I looked through the different sketches of the Night Fury. I studied the undamaged right tail fin and started sketching out what would be the schematic blueprint for the prosthetic tail I was going to make. From my studies, I concluded that the Night Fury's tail fin has four segments. I made down a note. The fin has five supporting skeletal structures in which the webbing will be connected to. I made another note. Then, I thought of all the possible materials I could use to build this prosthetic tail fin. Two materials came to my mind. Leather and metal, with the leather acting as the membrane and the metal as the support structures. I drew another sketch of my proposed tail fin and enlarged it on a large piece of paper.

_All right, its time to get to work._

Donning my blacksmith apron, I grabbed a sword from the weapons rack and placed it on top of some hot rocks. Then, using the blower, I increased the temperature till it was hot enough for metal shaping to take place. Holding the hot sword by its hilt, I placed it on the work table and started the process of shaping it into a rod. That would form the "skeletal" support structure. Repeating the process five times over, I finally got the five support structures down. It was tedious and took quite a long time. I stood back to admire my work, and was faced with another problem: how are the "skeletal" structures supposed to rotate freely? I figured out the solution to that problem quickly. Taking a wrench, I proceeded to pluck out the screws from the shields. I cut off the bottom of the screw, leaving only the oddly shaped top. Never mind. I shaped those odd-shaped pieces of metal and made them into an almost perfect sphere. I reshaped the bottom of each rod so that it would fit the new addition. It worked! Now, with that obstacle out of the way, I could concentrate on getting the leather to form the "membrane" of the tail fin. After some cutting and resizing, I got the leather to just the right size and it fit perfectly onto the metal "skeleton". Adding a leather buckle at the end, I took up the finished product, nodded my head in satisfaction and snapped the prosthetic tail fin shut. It closed completely without any creaks or resistance.

_Perfect,_ I thought.

Smiling to myself, I decided to call it a day and headed home, along with the prosthetic tail fin. Tomorrow, I will get down to the cove and fit the new tail on Toothless.

_I guarantee that you will be back in the air by tomorrow, Toothless._

And I fell asleep before my head made contact with the pillow.

* * *

End of Chapter 6: Forbidden Friendship.

I'm finally done with this chapter. I decided to put in the first part of 'New Tail' in this chapter because I felt that it would be a good way to end the chapter. It goes to show that Hiccup values friendship bonds (building the artificial tail to help Toothless regain his flight). Anyways, this is the longest chapter I wrote so far. So, tell me how I did for this chapter. Was it satisfying or was it dismally disappointing? I need to know how you feel.

Next chapter: Chapter 7- New Tail (part 2)

Stay tuned an have a nice day:)


	7. Take To The Sky

**Disclaimer:** No, I still do not own 'How To Train Your Dragon' although I wish I had.

Hi guys! It took me quite a while to get this chapter up but I'm finally done with it. I also happen to notice that it is quite short. But anyways, let get on with the story, shall we?

* * *

Chapter Seven: Take To The Skies

* * *

It was not easy hauling an entire basket full of fish and some other stuff. All right, I admit it. I had stolen the basket of fish from a fellow Viking who happened to be fishing. Luckily, I had managed to disappear before he suspected that something was wrong. I trudged through the dense vegetation. Not wanting to attract any attention, I had chosen to set off on my journey in the early hours of the morning, when the sun was just rising. I also did not want to be late for the dragon training class that would take place in the late afternoon. Gobber would definitely suspect something and come after my hide.

Tucked under my armpits on my other hand was the artificial tail. I wondered if it would even work at all. A sense of excitement engulfed me. If it had managed to work then this would be the day Toothless would be set free from his prison. The plan was to get the prosthetic tail onto the dragon and watch it fly away. That was simple enough. Getting _into_ the cove would be the problem. You see, it is not easy going down the slope with your hands full. I slipped a few times and nearly broke my arm when I fell onto a huge boulder at the ground entrance.

Slipping through the small crevice, I set the heavy basket and the artificial tail down on the ground. I scanned the cove for any sign of the Night Fury. Yup, he was there, sleeping and not doing some disappearing acts. Sunlight poured into the cove from above. The air was crisp and fresh. Green grass covered the landscape, with occasional boulders sticking out of the ground. That was in contrast with the dark green conifers thriving in the forest above.

'Hey, Toothless. Rise and shine.' I said as I hauled an entire bucket of (still stolen) fish towards the dragon.

Toothless grunted and his ears perked up. He aroused from his slumber and saw me coming in.

'I brought breakfast. I hope… I hope you're hungry.' I said as I set the heavy basket onto the ground. I really, really hoped he was. I had spent hours hauling the basket of fish from the harbor to the cove.

Toothless perked up his ears and looked at the basket expectantly. I used my foot to upset the basket, causing it to topple to the floor, spilling its contents: kilograms of fresh, slimy fish. They made this squishing sound that reminded me of the raw haddock mixed with dragon drool. I shuddered at that thought.

'Okay, that's disgusting.'

The dragon licked his lips and made his way to the pile of fish on the floor. I decided to state today's menu.

'We have some salmon here, some nice Icelandic cod...' I said as the dragon poked his nose at the pile of slime. '...and a whole smoked eel.' At the mention of the word '_eel_', Toothless pupils contracted and he recoiled, backing away and growling at the pile of fish as if it had offended him. I wondered what could be the source of all this commotion. I took a step closer to the pile of slime and inspected it. Nothing seemed to be out of place. Then I saw it. The three foot long eel with red stripes. Recalling how Toothless had backed away, snarling at the eel, perhaps dragons hate eels?

_I wonder._

Reaching out for the eel, I grabbed the slimy substance in my fingers. I stole a glance at Toothless. He seemed to be itching to get out of this place as soon as possible. I lifted the eel from the pile. Toothless looked at it apprehensively and then unfurled his wings, hissing furiously.

'No, no, no, no, no!' I said quickly when I saw that Toothless was about to leap away from me. So I guess that if I wanted Toothless to stay with me then I would have to throw the eel away.

'It's okay.' I reassured the dragon as I did some damage control and flung the slimy eel as far as I could. Looking up at Toothless, I hoped that it would suffice. And sure enough, Toothless' pupils had regained their normal size and the dragon had relaxed.

'Is it all right now?' Toothless responded with a shake of his head, obviously content that the eel was disposed of.

'Yeah, I don't really like eel much either.' Smiling to myself, I wiped off the eel's mucus secretion on my fur coat. Interesting. Eels. I would never have known. I made a mental note to record that bit of information in my notebook later on. Apparently satisfied, Toothless started helping himself to the pile of fish. I hoped that there would be enough fish to keep him occupied. The last thing I wanted to happen was for the dragon to suddenly shift his tail and catapult me into the air. That would definitely not be fun at all.

'That's it.' I said soothingly as I moved backwards towards his tail. I kept my eyes on the dragon, making sure that he was focused on only the fish. 'That's it. Just stick with the good stuff. And don't you mind me. I'll just be back here, minding my own business.'

I kneeled down beside the damaged tail fin. Laying down the artificial tail fin as silently as I could, I looked up at the dragon to check if he was still distracted by the 'wondrous' meal I had given him. So far so good. I pushed the fake tail fin closer to the tail. I was practically shaking from the excitement. If this thing could fit... if this could work...

That was when the tail shifted.

It happened so suddenly, I had no idea what was going on. I only noticed that the tail had moved ten centimeters away from me only when I was about to attach the fin on the 'tail'.

_Come here._

I shifted forwards and was about to attach the fin when the tail moved again. This time much further away from me than the previous shift. Shocked, I looked up at the dragon to make sure that he had not yet noticed me. Toothless was snapping at a fish. Okay, then.

_Do not shift your tail too much. This wouldn't hurt a bit._

Slightly annoyed, I tried to move the prosthetic closer to the tail… and it shifted away from me again. The dragon was starting to get on my nerves. Can't it stay still? This time I decided that I would move to the other side of the tail to make sure that the tail would not shift _away_ from me again. Moving the tail fin closer and preparing to cross over the tail to the other side, Toothless surprised me by jerking his tail upwards all of a sudden. That was a rather big shock and I gasped, recoiling from the tail to prevent getting hit. Looking up at him I saw that he was still snapping happily at the fish. I wondered if he even knew what I was doing. Deciding not to take any risks, I comforted the dragon.

'It's OK.'

That was when Toothless shifted his tail for the fifth time. I was getting really annoyed right now.

_Alright, that does it! Come here you annoying little tail._

With frustration and annoyance as a propellant, my hands reached out and grabbed the dragon's tail in hopes of securing it to the ground. Whether the dragon noticed what I had been doing did not matter to me anymore. I did not haul an entire basket of fish here for nothing. I was going to secure the fin on the tail no matter what. But I guessed that my arms weren't enough. Even with the combined strength of my arms, the tail still managed to shift in all directions, as if it were alive.

_Time to improvise._

I decided that if the strength of my arm wasn't enough, I would use the weight of my entire body. Glowering angrily at the accursed tail, I sat on it, this time feeling very confident that the tail would not be able to move... until it moved. The tail jerked backwards, and I would have fallen on my face if not for my reflexes. Then, as sudden as it had shifted, the tail went immobile. That gave me the time I needed to put on the tail fin.

_Thank you, Toothless._

'Okay. Let's see if this fits.' I muttered to myself as I turned away from Toothless' back.

Bringing the fin closer to the tail, I opened the top leather buckle and tied it around the top of the good tail fin. Then, I fastened the buckle and secured another buckle to the end of Toothless' tail. I tightened both buckles. Making sure that the entire structure was secured to the tail, I tried moving it with my hands. The top part of the artificial fin shifted, which meant that it could do with some tightening. It emitted clicks as I did so. I tried shifting the fin with my hands again. This time it remained as immobile as ever. Satisfied, I sat back, admiring my work. I had not miscalculated. The artificial tail fin was almost similar in length to its biological counterpart. I extended the prosthetic tail fin to get a better overall view of the accuracy of my work.

The extended artificial tail fin was very similar to the one on my left. Everything fitted. I gave it a test by extending and closing the tail fin. I could do so without encountering any resistance from the tail fin. I smiled to myself.

'That's not to bad. It works.' I said proudly.

The tail fin could do with some modifications but this would do for now.

Then, what happened next did not make any sense to me, at least when I was still recovering from the shock.

It started as a slight tug, then, there was a loud whoosh and my entire body was jerked backwards from the tremendous force. Instinctively, my hands wrapped around Toothless' tail. I noticed that the now empty fish basket was growing smaller and smaller. It took me quite a while to make sense of what was happening, after the initial shock had worn off.

I. Am. _Flying_. Literally! And on a dragon too!

_This is amazing!_ One part of me thought.

_Get me back down!_ The other part of me thought.

We soared higher and higher. The wind rustling in my ears. I could feel and hear the strong beat of Toothless' wings. We were almost level with the top of the cove when we started to plummet. As much as I wanted to get back on the ground, I did not want to get pulverized in the process. Now how do I get this beast back up in the air? Then, I did something out of sheer terror, using all the strength that I could summon, I yanked open the fake tail fin. We narrowly avoided contact with the solid ground as we ascended. After a while, we were finally out of the cove! So that is how you control a fake tail fin. The ground went further ad further away from us. I could not help but feel awed at the sight. You spend your entire life on the ground and you finally get the chance to see it from above. I would never forget the sight of the ground from up here. You could feel the distinctive difference in the temperature of the air up here. Air currents blasted the tail fin and I and I had some difficulty in controlling it.

'Oh my! It's working!' I exclaimed excitedly as the cool wind rustled my hair.

I flipped the tail fin to the left and the dragon responded by moving to the left. We went into a sharp dive, cold wind stinging my eyes, headed for the cove once again. I turned the fin back to its original position and we pulled out of the dive almost immediately. So the tail fins control the pitch. Interesting (how many times have I used that?). I could see my reflection against the lake. If only my father could see this. He would be amazed.

'Yes, yes! I did it!' I declared, shaking the tail fin for emphasis.

Toothless, however, had other ideas. No sooner did I celebrated my success did he fling me off his tail. I did two _full_ somersaults in the air (something that I could never have hoped to achieve on the ground) and hit the water, face first. The icy cold water chilled me to the bone. There was a whining somewhere and a huge _splash!_ I guess Toothless must have crash-landed without someone operating his new tail fin.

'Yeah!' I whooped in joy as I emerged from the surface of the water. Toothless, however, did not seem to happy with landing in the water.

_Ha!_ I thought mockingly. _That will teach you a lesson on your manners. Never throw a passenger off the back of your tail._

If the dragon wanted to take flight again, it would require someone (me) to operate his tail fin. But sitting at the back of his tail using my hands to control the fin proved to be very difficult. I would need something else to help me with this. As I pondered over the matter, I found myself thinking about horses. And how they were ridden. Then the answer hit me.

_A saddle! That's it! And a rope to control the tail fin!_

I was too lost in my own thoughts that I did not even bother to get out of the water. I was probably splashing around in the cold water for Odin knows how long, until I saw Toothless getting himself out of the lake.

A slight wind blew past the cove and I found myself shivering from the cold. I had better go home now and change into a new set of clothes before I die of hypothermia. I was just about to do that when I felt something tug me back. Landing flat on my back, I had no time to recover before a big, dark, mass dominated the space above me. Shocked, I had no idea what the Night Fury was up to.

'Toothless! Toothless, what are you doing?' I said with a quavering voice that failed to hide my fear.

There was a bright flash of light and the air turned warm, so did the ground. The bright blue light scorched the ground around me, creating a perfect circle of charred soil and leaving yellow flames in its wake. The huge black mass, which was Toothless, pushed me to one side. Then, I felt him curl around me and, ah...

The dragon sure was warm.

I sat upright, with my back against the dragon. Toothless turned his head around and survey me with those eyes of his, both of which were filled with concern. Then I realized what he was trying to do. He was asking me if I was cold or not.

'I'm all right, Toothless.'

The dragon did not seem convinced with my answers. He let out short puffs of air. _Warm_ air. Ahh... This could have been a paradise. Magnificent scenery, a big crystal-clear lake and a personal dragon that would dry you. Life could not get better than this.

'Thanks, bud. But the ground works just fine.'

I gave the Night Fury a pat on his head and he seemed to have got the message. Resting his head on his front paws, he left me to bask in the heat that was currently radiating off in waves from the ground. At this rate I probably would be dry very soon. Resting my head against Toothless' body, I thought back on how exhilarating the unexpected flight was. The wind whistling in my ears, the coolness of the breeze... it made me wish that I could sprout wings and fly away. So this was what Toothless has been missing. The thrill of flight. I turned my head to face Toothless. He was looking at me with intense curiosity. I patted the dragon's snout.

'I'm so sorry, Toothless. Now I understand. I'd be pretty mad if I had lost the ability to fly.'

Toothless crooned. Guilt tore at my heart. If not for me, this dragon would still be up there, somewhere, enjoying his ability to fly. It was all my fault. And yet the dragon still cared for me, still didn't devour me. The dragon closed his eyes and went to sleep. I decided that I would head for home straightaway, so as not to miss the dragon training lessons with Gobber. I got up and carried the empty basket with me. Then, just before I got out of the cove through the crevice at the top, I bid farewell to the dragon.

'Bye Toothless. I'll see you later.'

The Night Fury responded to that with a low grunt.

* * *

When I got back home, I set the basket down on the floor and changed into a new set of clothes. They were the same boring green ones because my father never actually bothered to get the tailor to make different sets of clothes for me. I took my axe, shield and an extra eel (just in case) and headed straight for the Kill Ring. Gobber and Fishlegs were already waiting there. Gobber eyed my hair and said, 'What has happened to your hair?'

I touched my hair and noticed that it was wet. Oops. I guess I forgot to dry my hair. I decided to come up with an excuse.

'I was, er… taking a… a swim early this morning. I forgot to dry my hair so its wet. Yep. That's pretty much about it.'

Gobber quirked an eyebrow in suspicion, but decided to let the matter drop. The rest of the training group arrived in the order of Astrid, the twins and finally, Snotlout. My cousin always had a disregard for punctuality, so forgive him. The dragon trainer clapped his hands together and welcomed us into the ring. It was maze-less this time round. I heaved a sigh of relief. I definitely did not want to deal with a Nadder again. Gobber told us to wait for him and he walked out of the ring. Snotlout noticed my presence and (obviously) commented on me.

'Why is your hair all wet? Have you been doing some… _stuff_?' he said, sniggering.

'No, I just went for a swim in the lake.'

'Oh. So you went skinny-dipping, didn't you?' That comment earned quite a number of laughs from the twins. Luckily, Gobber returned. He was carrying buckets of… _water_? He placed the buckets down on the floor in front of us and said, 'All of you take one bucket of water. No fighting over the buckets.'

When we were done with that, Gobber paired us up, which I found odd. Snotlout went with Tuffnut. Astrid went with Ruffnut, which left me and Fishlegs. The blacksmith then walked over to the release latch of the rattling double-arched gate and pulled it down. The wooden lock got lifted and the gates went silent for a while. Gobber walked casually away from the gates to behind us and began by introducing us to the lesson the way he alway does: talking about the aim of the lesson.

'Today is about teamwork.'

BANG!

The explosion forced the gates open, spilling an obnoxious cloud of thick smoke into the ring. The others disappeared into the smoke. Slowly, it enveloped us in one suffocating mass. Fishlegs and I formed a tighter group. We could hear Gobber's voice from somewhere behind us.

'Now a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra-tricky. One head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to find out which is which.'

Oh, great. We're up against a two-headed dragon? I suddenly realized the reason why Gobber had paired us up. We could both have a go at the dragon heads and one of us would hit the sparking head. Not too difficult, huh? Yeah, that was what I thought. I squinted my eyes in concentration, but the smoke was thick. Visibility was about two meters. Not a very good range of sight. When you're fighting dragons, you need to get a clear view, which was exactly what the Zippleback had just denied us. Plus eleven stealth times two. I finally saw the reason. Fishlegs started on his statistical analysis of the Zippleback.

'Razor-sharp serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion, prefers ambush attacks, crushing its victims…'

I found it way too irritating, so I cut across him. Don't blame me. It was enough to land anyone in an asylum.

'_Would you please stop that?_' I said through gritted teeth to prevent me from shouting. Fishlegs shut up instantly.

'If that dragon shows any of its faces,' I heard Snotlout say, 'I'm gonna… _there!_'

It was almost impossible to see through the fog, but I tensed up anyway, afraid that the dragon might just pop out of the smoke all of a sudden. The last thing you want would be for a shadow to pop out of nowhere and kill you. Just as I was expecting the Zippleback to appear, there was the sound of water splashing and a few grunts.

'Hey!' exclaimed Astrid.

'It's us, idiots.' said a voice which I recognized as Ruffnut's.

'You're butts are getting bigger, we thought you were a dragon.' commented Tuffnut scornfully.

'Not that there's anything wrong with a dragon-esque figure.' Snotlout said, trying to do some damage control. But his "damage control" had just sealed their fate.

THUNK!

I flinched at the hollow thunking sound, followed by a splash of water. I could hear Tuffnut making contact with the ground and Snotlout yelping in pain as something hit him in the face. Snotlout was on the ground, groaning in pain from whatever that had hit his face. There was silence for a moment, then Tuffnut let out a small yelp and something clattered onto the floor. Then, a yell filled the air.

'AHH!'

Something swished across the floor, barely missing Astrid and Ruffnut from what I could see. There were a few noises and Tuffnut came running out of the smoke, with a few gashes on his shoulder.

'Oh. I am hurt! I am _very_ much hurt!' he screamed. Astrid, Ruffnut and Snotlout retreated out of the smoke on the other side, which meant that something was inside the smoke.

'Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now.' said Fishlegs in a quavering voice.

Way to go, Captain Obvious.

A head with two yellow eyes and menacing teeth attached to a long, slender neck emerged from the now-thinning smoke. The head itself was horrifying. A small and sharp ivory horn rested on its head. Its mouth was lined razor sharp serrated teeth that were so long, they protruded out of the Zippleback's mouth. I inched slowly away from it. The head hovered in front of Fishlegs, making him retreat, whimpering along the way. Fishlegs then realized that he still had a bucket of water clutched in his hands and emptied the contents of his bucket onto the dragon's small head. I really hoped that it was the head that sparked the gas. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, the dragon opened it's jaws and a greenish gas leaked out.

'Oops. Wrong head.' Fishlegs exclaimed sheepishly.

I guess we ran out of luck.

There was a loud hissing noise as the Zippleback let loose its gas on Fishlegs. He ran away, screaming at the top of its lungs.

'Fishlegs!' exclaimed Gobber as he watched the boy run towards the exit. So Fishlegs was scared of gas? Interesting. A loud flapping noise jolted me back into reality. I turned my head to see the Zippleback flapping its wings. The smoke cleared and I could now see it very clearly. There were two heads. It would be impossible to distinguish between the two head because both heads looked similar. The left head

By now the smoked had cleared and I could see that the long neck was connected to a green body. And the green body also housed another neck, which was connected to another head. The right head (I assumed was the sparking one) opened its mouth and let loose some sparks (target acquired).

'Now, Hiccup!' Gobber reminded.

Oh, yeah. I still had a bucket full of water. I aimed it at the head and used all my strength to propel the water towards the dragon's spark head. It was a pathetically futile attempt. My stream of water did not make it far. It probably traveled for about thirty centimeters before gravity did its job and made it fall right back onto the ground, landing with a series of _splats!_ I cursed silently.

'Oh, come on.' I said rather lamely, resting the bucket on top of my head. The Zippleback raised both its heads and snarled, setting off some sparks and extending its wings for the effect. I fell over, loosing the bucket in the process. My head worked furiously to think of a way to get me out of this situation. I arrived at one possible solution and decided that it would be my best chance.

_Okay, lets try this out._

'Hiccup!' Gobber shouted.

I stood up on my legs and looked at the dragon. 'Back!' I said, waving my hands in a shooing action. One of the heads responded by moving back. 'Back!' I said again, waving my hands at the other head. The entire dragon began to move back, as a whole. 'Yes, that's right. Back! Into your cage!' The dragon retreated back into its enclosure. Then I grinned. I had the eel with me and it would be my best chance at getting this dragon to stay in its cage for a long time.

'Now think about what you've done.' I said, throwing in the eel just to finish off the job. It landed with a dull thud on the granite flooring and the Zippleback tried to move as far away from the eel as possible, as if it wanted to get through the wall in order to escape. Smirking, I used all my strength to shut the enclosure doors. Turning around and wiping the slime from the eel on my fur coat, I was faced with an entirely dumfounded training group. Fishlegs, the twins, my cousin were staring at me in awed stupefaction. Astrid just had a slightly surprised look on her face. Even Gobber was staring at me, his eyes very wide indeed.

_Thunk!_

Fishlegs had dropped his empty water bucket. The entire situation was just awkward. Used to being glowered at, it felt very awkward for people to be staring at me, amazed.

'So are we done? Because I have some things I need to er… yup, I'll see you… see you tomorrow!' With that I brisk-walked out of the ring, the rest of the group still staring at the enclosure which held the Zippleback. I smiled to myself.

_That's a start. If I continue on like this, I am bound to get noticed by the village._

I headed for the hall and had a quick lunch. Following that, I headed straight for the forge and settled down on the drawing table. I studied my previous sketches of Toothless. After much studying and observation, I concluded that the best place to place a saddle would be on Toothless' neck, right behind the scales that fringed the back of his space. It would fit perfectly there, as if it were specially shaped for a saddle to fit there. But there was still insufficient data. If I were to build a saddle, I'd need to collect some more physical data from Toothless himself. I took my stick, notebook, some pieces of paper (which I put into my notebook) and a measuring rope that was graduated by knots tied at intervals. I took (more like stole) a fish from the kitchens and proceeded straight for the cove.

* * *

End of chapter 7

All right guys, that concludes chapter 7. By the way, the Ancient Egyptians used measuring ropes to measure distances.

I'm also planning on writing another HTTYD fanfic as well as novelizing the entire movie through Toothless' POV. Should I go ahead with both?

Next up, See You Tomorrow. So, until next time, stay tuned. Don't forget to review. Have a nice day!


	8. Saddle Up!

**Disclaimer:** Logic dictates that it would be impossible for a fourteen-year-old boy to be able to own such an awesome movie like 'How To Train Your Dragon'

Hi guys, welcome back! I thank all those who have taken the effort to actually read this story and to review it. And there has been 6 favs as of now! You're all awesome, guys! So, I have a long chapter for you as a reward. 10,000+ words. How will that do? We all deserve long chapters once in a while, don't we?

A/N: I have decided to split 'See You Tomorrow' into several parts. I can't tell how many at this stage but I know that if I had joined them all together, you guys would get a massive chapter.

Let's get on with the story.

* * *

Chapter Eight: Saddle Up!

* * *

"_Toooothless_… ohh, Toothless." I called out.

The cove was still looking as magnificent as it had been before. It was now in the early afternoon and the birds were chirping jubilantly as they flew past the cove. My eyes scanned the small, little cove once again. The dragon couldn't have disappeared again, could it?

_Oh, come on._

I leapt onto the small outcropping and stood there, surveying the cove once more. Still no sign of Toothless. If he was hiding, then I admit that he had done a pretty good job.

"Come on, Toothless."

I descended into the cove via the secret entrance that led off the right side of the outcropping. This time it was much easier due to the fact that I wasn't carrying anything heavy, with the possible exception of the measuring rope. It had gotten caught on the tree branches a number of times, and I had to go through the hassle of freeing it.

Emerging into the cove, I saw that Toothless wasn't anywhere. Given his history of being an expert at hide "n" seek, I guess that I would be spending hours finding him. Provided that he doesn't find me first.

"Come here, Toothless. I need to take some measurements."

The cove continued to yield its secrets. No dragon appeared. Sighing, I settled down on the top of a small boulder and laid down my belongings. I opened my notebook and studied the sketches.

"Hmm…" I said as I contemplated the sketch. If I were to make a saddle, I would first have to secure it to someplace on the dragon such that I would not fall off when I am steering Toothless. Binding leather straps to Toothless" snout would not work, the dragon most likely wouldn't like that.

"Perhaps I could…" I began.

_Swoosh!_

Something hit my back, hard. I was completely caught off guard and was sent flying through the air, this time without any emergency landing gear. Doing three full somersaults, I landed flat on my back, and my vision went haywire for a while. However, before I could register anything within my head, something black and massive loomed overhead, with its emerald eyes staring down at me. Then, something wet and warm moved across my face.

Toothless was licking my face.

"All right, Toothless. I admit defeat. You… you win." I said, more than eager for the dragon to remove its tongue before I get soak in a pool of dragon drool. Toothless, however, was not quick to consent. He continued splattering my face with drool until he was satisfied. I stood up, hair slick with saliva, and I laughed. Toothless looked at me playfully.

"You can play with me after I am done with some work."

Remembering that I still had a fish hidden beneath me vest, I grabbed it and tossed it at Toothless. He immediately lunged for it and gobbled it up in less than a second. He then looked up at me with a look of greed plastered on his face.

"You voracious eater." I chuckled.

Picking up my notebook, charcoal stick, and measuring rope, I proceeded to Toothless" side. The dragon whirled around, as if he were scared that I would hurt him. I took a step back and tripped over a small, round pebble that was embedded in the rock, dropping my notebook, charcoal stick and measuring rope in the process. Toothless picked me up by my vest using his jaws and righted me.

"Thanks, bud."

I picked up the rope and approached the dragon once more. He looked at the rope reproachfully, as if he were scared of it.

"Its okay. I won't hurt you. You have my word on that." I assured.

The Night Fury seemed to be less than assured, for he started backing away and snapping at me, his pupils turning into slits.

"No, no, no, no! I am not going to hurt you!"

I decided that I would let the matter rest for a while. I did not want to lose the friendship bond I currently had with the dragon. Having come this far, it would have been a waste if it had dissolved right now. Tossing aside the rope, I approached the dragon carefully, stretching out both hands in front of me.

"Its all right. Just come over." I said in a soothing voice.

Toothless let a soft growl escape his throat. I flinched slightly, but nonetheless still walked closer to the dragon.

"Its all right, Toothless. I am not going to hurt you."

Said dragon stared at me, as if he were sizing me up, identifying whether I was still a threat. In the end, I guess he had decided that I was no longer a threat to him and purred at me. Assuming that he was allowing me to go closer to him, I strode over to the dragon in three steps. Patting him on the snout, I decided that if he would not allow me to take measurements, I would have to make physical observations.

"Just let me get behind you for a while. Will that be okay for you?" I enquired. The dragon grunted.

"I'll take that as a 'yes' then."

Making my way to Toothless' neck, I saw that it was a perfect spot for a saddle. The neck was fringed by small protrusions, two of which were longer than the rest and I assumed that they were the ears. They were separated by two smaller plates that looked like some sort of biological armor plating. Two more were present at the sides, below the ear. The top of the Night Fury's neck was almost scale-free, except for a few here and there. It surprised me that the Night Fury did not possess any horns. Studying his feet, I found that they were short and rather stubby, ending with a set of short but sharp claws. I turned my attention back to the neck. I thought about the materials that would be suitable in the construction of the saddle. Yes, metal would, without doubt, form the frame. However, what could be a suitable material for making the main body of the saddle? One material came to my mind.

_Leather._

Leather would be very preferable. It had a lot of advantages. First, it was cheap. Second, it was easy to shape. Third, it would be able to withstand loads of punishment. I decided to test out the roughness of the hide around the neck before I go ahead with the saddle. Rubbing my hand along the length of his neck, I realized that it was surprisingly smooth, with the exception of a few rough spots. So a leather saddle with a metallic support frame shaped with a slight curve to the top in the middle would be my best bet. Then, I noticed that Toothless was purring in pleasure as I was rubbing my hands along his neck.

_That's odd._

I stopped rubbing and so did the purring. Toothless turned his head to face me, his eyes seemed to convey the message that he wanted more.

"You like it?" I asked. The Night Fury answered with a croon and I assumed that it was a 'yes'.

Utilizing both my hands, I rubbed Toothless' neck, earning purrs from him. I decided to take it further. Once I had gained enough momentum, I proceeded to scratching his neck. Toothless arched up his entire body in pleasure, emitting rumbling purrs.

_So you do like it._

So far, Toothless was acting like a cat. Since cats liked being scratched under their chins, I deduced that the same would go for Toothless. Bringing my hands to beneath the chin area, I began scratching.

So right I was.

SLAM!

The Night Fury collapsed onto the ground in a heap. I was stood there, shocked by the sudden movement. Seeing the dragon on the floor, I panicked, worried that I had inadvertently brought harm to him. However, my panic was short lived.

Toothless opened his mouth and let out a series of purrs and would most probably stay that way for the next five minutes. I stared at my hands. Such a simple act like a scratch under the jaw had the ability to reduce an unholy offspring of lightning and death into a purring kitten that just lies on the ground, belly down, without a care in the world. If scratching a Night Fury under the chin could do just that, why not with the other dragons? That would be of some use during dragon training sessions. Turning around, I saw that Toothless was still on the ground, rumbling away.

_Get back to work!_ A voice at the back of my head nagged at me.

Oh, right. I had completely forgotten about the saddle. Since Toothless was still enjoying his newfound source of pleasure, it gave me a window of opportunity to get the measuring rope close to him. I wound one end of the rope on one of the protrusions and measured the length of the neck first.

"One… Two… Three. All right, that's three knots altogether."

Now it was time to take the measurements for the length between the neck and the tail fin.

"… Twenty seven… Twenty eight… Twenty nine." I counted.

Undoing the knot that I had tied around Toothless' ear, I picked up the rope and set it aside. The dragon was still lying, belly down, on the floor, although he wasn't purring anymore.

"Get up, Toothless." I mocked. The dragon did not respond.

"Toothless, are you all right?" I asked. But when I got no reply, I assumed that the dragon must have fallen asleep.

_You lazy dragon._

I gathered my belongings and sat down beside Toothless, with my back against his body. It felt so comfortable, like resting against a patch soft grass. I recorded my measurements down on a page in my notebook.

_Ideal length of saddle: 3 knots_

_Ideal length of rope: 27 knots_

_Saddle materials_

_Iron frame_

_Leather seat (overlap)_

I sat there, pondering about what type of rope I could use for this purpose. I needed something strong, something that could withstand constant pulling.

_Constant pulling. Hmm… how about the anchor ropes from the harbor?_

That was it! I penned down the idea.

_Preferred type of rope: High-tension anchor ropes (from harbor)_

I set my pen and notebook down on the floor in front of me and laid my head back on Toothless. His body felt just like my pillow, except for the fact that this pillow was able to rise and fall, thanks to Toothless' breathing. This could have been heaven.

As I looked across the cove, I knew that I had to keep this relationship a complete secret. However, I knew that it would not be easy. Secrets have this nasty habit of revealing themselves when you least expect it. If my father knew about this, Toothless and I'd be utterly screwed.

I closed my eyes as I felt exhausted after an entire day of forest-trekking, dragon-fighting and measurement-taking. I was actually able to get some rest.

Well, at least for a fraction of a second.

_Wham!_

Something slammed onto my back, propelling me into the air and putting me on a trajectory towards the ice-cold lake. Well, of course the usual somersaulting acts apply.

_Splash!_

I landed, face-first, onto the surface of the water. Goosebumps made themselves known on my skin and soon I was shivering in the water. I managed to surface and pop my head out of the water. Looking around, I spotted Toothless on the side of the lake, with a triumphant expression on his face. He stared at me with a 'you-deserved-it' kind of look.

Oh. The dragon was probably seeking revenge for yesterday's events.

"Toothless, you naughty dragon." I laughed. I swam to the shore and laid my back on the ground. The sun was shining directly overhead, so I gained a rather nasty color burn in my eyes. Deciding that it would be best to dry my clothes, I approached Toothless. This time, however, he was rather reluctant to offer his first-rate warming services. Crooning, he bounded off in the other direction, leaving a cold and shivering me behind. I chased after him in futility and gave up after the first minute had passed. Shivering from the cold, I felt that I would die from hypothermia if I trekked through the forest all the way home. Resolving that I should stay here to dry up first, I looked around for another possible source of warmth. The sun was one but it would not be enough. Laying my fur coat on a boulder that had the sunlight shining directly on it, I scanned the cove for any other source of warmth. Spotting some twigs and branches along the side of the cove and under the old, gnarled tree, I came to a decision.

_Let's collect firewood._

I went around collecting the twigs and branches. That was the easy part. I set them down on the ground and arranged them in a pile. Now came the difficult part. Starting the fire wasn't going to be easy work. I remembered that there were many different ways of starting a fire. One way was to align a stick perpendicularly to a block of wood and clasp both hands around the stick. Then, the person had to rotate the stick rapidly in order to get enough friction to start a small fire on the block of wood. The other way was to strike two piece of rocks together to create a spark. I decided that the second method would be easier than the first so I went to pick up two rocks of roughly the same size, went back to the pile of wood, sat down on the floor and began striking. This should be easy, right? Just strike the rocks together with all your might and wait for the spark.

How wrong I was.

Looks like it required a certain degree of skill as well. The entire thing was made a hundred times more difficult since my hands were trembling from the cold. One of the rocks broke free from the grip my hand had exerted on it and it dropped onto the ground. Cursing, I picked up the rock… only to have it slip out of my fingers once again.

'Damn!' I swore.

I tried to pick up the accursed rock. This time I had succeeded. However, there was still work to be done. Growling in frustration, I tried in vain to get a spark. Strike one, no spark. Never mind, try again. Strike two, still no spark. Strike three, _still_ _no spark_. Strike four, rock falls out of right hand.

_Oh, for the love of Thor..._

Frustrated, I flung the rock in my left hand with all the strength I could muster. It sailed across the lake and landed in the middle of it with a a loud plop. Then, standing up, I kicked the rock that I had dropped on the ground. It too, flew into the lake with the same old plop.

"Stupid rocks…" I muttered under my breath. I was really vexed. "Can't even start a proper fire. How I wished I could be able to breath fire. Life would be so much easier."

As if on cue, the pile of wood in front of me exploded in a brilliant flash of blue light. Temporarily blinded by the flash, I stumbled backwards.

"What in the name of Thor was that?"

When my vision recovered, I noticed that the pile of wood wasn't a pile of wood anymore. It was a pile of _flaming _wood. It was very warm. The heat seemed to form one continuous wave that crashed over me, eradicating all the cold that was all I felt until now. I huddled around the fire and looked around the cove for any sign of the dragon. I saw that Toothless was perched on the top of the very same boulder that he had been crouching on the very first time we had met. Smiling, I said, "Thanks bud."

Toothless responded to that with a low croon and leapt off the boulder, settling down beside me on his hind legs with his body inclined upwards and his front paws pressed onto the ground, swaying his tail from side to side. He sure did look like a dog.

"I appreciate that you had started the fire. But the next time you want to do that, you could at least give me a warning instead of blowing up the firewood right in front of my face."

The Night Fury nodded his head as if he understood me. Then, he laid his head down on the ground and yawned (it did sound like a yawn). I wondered if Night Furies really slept that often.

"You are one lazy dragon. Do you know that, Toothless?"

He cuddled up next to me and forced his head onto my lap. I grinned and gently stroked his head. It was probably late afternoon right now and I was feeling very tired.

"Sleep tight, Toothless."

I let my eyelids droop and I fell asleep before I made contact with Toothless' neck.

* * *

Astrid Hofferson has always been a warrior. She had developed a passion for dragon slaying ever since she was little and hoped to make it her future profession when she grows up. She had spent years familiarizing herself with the different types of weapons that would be of use during a close-quarter combat with a dragon and spent many more years trying to build up her core muscles. When it came to fighting dragons, Astrid was more of an old-fashioned take-it-down-with-an-axe and then lop-off-its-head kind of girl. Possessing a determined and strong persona, she was the hardest girl to please in the village. Boys that had tried to impress her but failed to do so often ended up with a dislocated jaw or a missing tooth. Ever since her father died of cancer when she was just a baby, she had been trying very hard to live up to her expectations. Her mother, Phlegma the Fierce, was known for her extreme ferocity and relentlessness when it came to war. So it was expected of Astrid to have the same ferocity and relentlessness when it came to war. Her determination, coupled with a little bit of strength, shaped her into what she is today. It was not easy at first. She had remembered about how the other bigger boys would taunt her about her size and gender, saying that dragon fighting was only reserved for males. Determined to change that notion, she trained for hours on end, every day. Adhering to a strict code of discipline and conduct, she confined herself to the forest, hurling axes at the tree trunks, practicing sword fighting with an imaginary foe. After a few months, her efforts had paid off. She finally proved the boys wrong. She proved that females were also able to have the strength to fight back and that they were not weak in any aspect. The boys were forced to accept the truth and she had topped the dragon training class ever since. Yes, she had topped the dragon training class ever since.

That is, until a few hours ago.

What had went wrong? Even Astrid had no answer to that question. She got bested by a pathetic little boy she thought would have no knowledge whatsoever about the basics of dragon fighting. That boy was the very same boy that had screwed up during dragon raids on a regular basis. And when that boy got close to her, he would be reduced to a stupid, stuttering idiot. How can he possibly make a full-grown Hideous Zippleback that still had gallons of explosive gas to spare retreat in fear? Astrid could see no sense in that. From village idiot to a Zippleback frightener. Astrid suspected that the boy must have been up to something. She remembered how Hiccup had tossed an eel into the enclosure and how the Zippleback had reacted to it. She suspected that black magic must have been involved somewhere. If not, how could an ordinary eel scare a dragon?

The blue-eyed female shook her head in frustration and tossed her beloved axe onto the wooden flooring of her house. Her house stood on an outcropping to the south of the island. It was pretty deserted down here except for a solitary catapult tower that rested in the distance.

Astrid wondered what her mother would say if she had known that her daughter had just got overtaken by a pathetic little boy in dragon training. Her mother was currently on an expedition in search of the Dragons' Nest, which explained her absence from the house.

Picking up her axe, she looked at it. Icefork, she had named it. It was her companion ever since she was little. A gift from her father, she refused to accept any other axe. Having trained with it for seven years, she knew everything about her weapons. It weakness, its weight, the best place to hold it, etc.

As she thought about Hiccup, anger and rage overtook her emotions, fueling her desire to hurl the axe at Hiccup's head. Of course, Hiccup wasn't present at the scene, so the unlucky table took the full brunt of the axe's destructive power.

_SLAM!_

The table split into half, with wooden splinters flying in all directions. Not yet satisfied, Astrid plucked out her axe and continued on her rampage, wielding Icefork like an expert and slicing almost effortlessly through the table. When she was done, what remained of the oak table was just an unrecognizably mutilated mess of wooden splinters on the ground. Astrid's eyes flared with fury. She was going to set things right, she was going to top the class once again. And Hiccup would not be an obstacle.

_You better watch out, Hiccup.

* * *

_When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was the smell of smoke. I forced my eyes open and saw that there was a sort of odd, red glow in front of me. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed to have emanated from a smoldering mass of charred wood. Then I remembered that I had fallen asleep while attempting to dry off by the side of the fire. Looking skyward, I saw that the sky had turned purplish-orange and that the sun had already disappeared beneath the lip of the cove, leaving it in the shadows. It must have been late in the evening. I stood up and yawned. I decided that I had better get home before the villagers suspected that I was up to something. Covering the fire with loads of sand, I checked if my clothes were still wet. They were dry. Good. Collecting my notebook, charcoal stick, my (now dried) fur vest, and my measuring rope, I was about to say goodbye to Toothless and leave the cove when I discovered that Toothless had disappeared. I frantically scanned the cove.

"Where are you?"

I paced around the cove, checking every nook and cranny for any sign of the dragon, but came up empty.

"Toothless! Where are you? This is not funny!" I called out.

I tucked the charcoal stick and the notebook into my fur vest and slung the rope over my shoulder. I searched the cove once more in futility before I gave up.

"All right, Toothless. I give up! Just stop playing these game, would you?"

The dragon, wherever he is, kept silent.

"Hello, Toothless. Can you hear me? I said I don't want to play this again."

_Slam!_

I whipped around just in time to see the dragon land in front of the small crevice that was the only route out of this beautiful prison. He had a sort of a smirk plastered on his face. I gulped, this was not going to turn out well… at least for me.

"Its good to see you Toothless. But if you don't mind, just move aside. You're blocking the exit."

He crooned, as if to say that he had intended to do this. Sighing, I walked over to the dragon and was about to reach the crevice when something hit me on the stomach. I was knocked backwards, falling flat on my back. Standing up, I asked the dragon, "What did you do that for?"

He answered with a smile that probably meant 'let's play'.

"Please, Toothless. I am not in the mood for games right now." I pleaded.

Tucking the rope under my vest, I walked over to the crevice… only to get knocked back again by Toothless' tail. I fell flat on my back, again. Toothless sat there, swaying his tail from side to side. That was when I understood his true intentions. I would have to get cross him in order to be able to get out of the cove. That would be virtually impossible. But not if I could find a way to get past Toothless _without_ bringing harm to him _and_ myself. But the question is…

_How?_

Toothless sat there, ears perked up and eyes looking very innocent. Yeah right, like I don't know that there is a subtlety behind the innocent look. I thought through all the possible choices that I had. I remembered how Toothless had retreated when I was approaching him with the rope, but decided against it. It would be far too dangerous. Cute or not, the Night Fury would still be able to put a fireball into me if he wanted to or if he felt threatened. What else could I do? The eel came to my mind. However, the only problem was that I did not have the eel with me.

_What else?_

In my desperation, I recalled about the chin scratch. That's it! If I could get close enough to give the Night Fury a scratch under the chin, then he would black out with pleasure and I would get through. Mutualism at its best. I get to get out and Toothless gets to enjoy some pleasure. We both benefit from it. Now I had to figure out the perfect position to strike. Toothless was currently sitting on his hind legs, like a dog. It would be very hard to reach Toothless' chin just by jumping because it was way out of my reach. Looks like the smart dragon had already put that matter into consideration beforehand. I looked back at how Toothless had prevented me from getting through. His tail would slam me in the stomach.

_If I could just jump on the tail and use it as a launcher to propel me towards Toothless' chin, I would be able to scratch him._

Timing would be everything. Granted, I was agile and small, but this would prove to be very hard. There was such a small margin of error, many things could go wrong. I could lose my footing on Toothless' tail and fall, or I could miss the pressure point and fall… and get whacked by the tail.

_Odin, please just help me this instance, would you?_

After muttering a silent prayer, I ran forward. Toothless seemed to be taken aback for a moment, however, he reacted quickly, swiping his tail. I anticipated that move and looked for the perfect moment to jump on it. Time seemed to slow down as I focused on the tail.

_Come on, let this work._

It was just a few inches away from me when I saw my chance.

_Now!_

I leapt onto the tail and amazingly, I did not slip off. Twisting my body to the right, I utilized all the momentum gained from the previous jump to propel myself upwards. My eyes trained on the spot under Toothless' chin, I stretched out my right hand. Toothless seemed to notice me and we locked eyes for a fraction of a second. He seemed to be taken completely by surprise and reacted, but it was a little too late. My fingers made contact and the pressure exerted was more than enough to open the floodgates that held back the endless surge of pleasure.

WHUMP!

I continued on my trajectory to the right and landed on the ground, bending down my knees and using my left hand to support me, breaking my fall. I turned around just in time to see Toothless collapse onto the ground, purring in utmost pleasure.

Grinning, I grabbed my measuring rope and climbed into the crevice. I silently thanked the gods and continued on my way up the slope. Before I climbed out of the huge opening, I stood on the outcropping and looked down onto the cove. Toothless lay at the crevice, already recovering from the wave of pleasure. He turned his head around and spotted me. An annoyed look passed over his face. I knew that he would make me pay for it when I come back but I was content that I had got out in one piece. I bid farewell to the dragon.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

With that, I ran out into the wilderness, towards the village.

* * *

Gobber the Belch was frowning; and that was saying something, because Gobber the Belch rarely frowned.

So why did he frown?

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The Third has not been see in the village for over seven hours. Gobber had suspected something bad had happened to Hiccup. If something _did_ happen, Gobber the Belch would be screwed.

"Hiccup! Where in the name of Odin's ghost are you?" he shouted for the seventy-eighth time in three hours.

Hiccup was not present during lunch, nor was he present during dinner. That was peculiar because Hiccup would always show up for either one. Yet he did not. Gobber did not think of it at first, but after the sun started to set and Hiccup still had not shown up, he got very worried. He had checked Stoick's residence, the Mead hall, the Kill Ring and many other places that Hiccup could have been at.

Two more places remained: either the forge or Astrid's house. Gobber knew that Hiccup had developed a crush in the Viking girl and concluded that he might be there. Knocking on the door, he got no reply. He knocked again on the door for the second time; no reply. By the fifth knock, Gobber was getting irritated.

_What could those two be up to?_

Gobber hoped that whatever they were up to wasn't too 'serious'. After waiting for another five minutes, the master blacksmith's patience finally broke.

"_Astrid! _Could you answer the door?" he called out with a definite tone of impatience and annoyance.

For the first ten-seconds, there was no reply. Then, just as the blacksmith was about to knock down the front door, it opened, revealing the face of a girl. She had a blonde coloration to her hair. Her face was quite rounded. She possessed two eyes with blue pupils and wore a blue shirt with white stripes. Two plates of armor was present on top of her shoulders. But perhaps the most terrifying aspect of the girl was her axe. Icefork, Gobber believed was the weapon's designated name. The girl seemed to be anticipating some kind of ambush because, judging by the surprised look on her face, she clearly did not expect her visitor to be the dragon trainer. Astrid Hofferson relaxed a little and then spoke with a slight tone of reverence.

"Gobber, what do you possibly seek from me?"

"Have you seen Hiccup? I've been looking all over for him." The trainer said.

At the mention of the word 'Hiccup', Astrid's eyes burned with a sort of fury. Gobber arched his eyebrows. Did they have a fight or something?

"No. He is not here. He'll never be here." Astrid's said without any emotion.

So they did have a fight.

"But do you have any idea of where he might be?"

Astrid seemed to be radiating so much hatred, it was a wonder the door did not crumble into dust from the intensity.

"Wouldn't care if I did."

With that, she closed the door, albeit rather roughly, leaving a very confused Gobber standing at the steps. What on earth had happened to that puny little Viking? The blacksmith crossed out Astrid's house on the list of 'Possible Hiccup Hideouts' and proceeded to the last possible location where Hiccup could have been: the forge. Yes, Gobber did search it five times already. However, the forge has always been Hiccup's favourite hangout spot. He would spend hours in there pondering over his past inventions and brainstorming for more ideas on how to improve them. One way or the other, Hiccup would end up there somehow, so this time Gobber was very sure that Hiccup would turn up there. Then, he would have a friendly little chat with his apprentice and find out why he was absent from the village for almost the entire day.

The first sign that he wasn't there was the fact that no light was coming out of the forge's windows. The blacksmith, however, with his stubbornness, stuck to his original plan and entered the forge. The second sign that the midget wasn't there was the fact that the forge's doors were locked. Only Gobber, Stoick and Hiccup had the keys to the lock, and the lock was one way, which means that you could only lock or unlock it from the outside, not the inside. The Vikings did not feel the need to allow the door to be locked from both directions. They hypothesized that as long as there was one Viking within the forge, no intruder would be able to get in, and blacksmiths were usually among the strongest of all Vikings, well, with the possible exception of Hiccup. The dragon trainer extracted the key from his pocket. Well, it was more like a group of wooden keys tied together by a string. There were about fifty keys in total, and only one of them would fit into the lock. Turning the correct key in the lock, there was a satisfying click and the lock slid open. He pushed open the door and entered the forge.

The interior of the forge was quite cramp, especially the entrance, where there were stacks of weaponry stacked on top of each other. Not exactly human-friendly if you tripped on one of the weapons and you upset the entire shelf.

Gobber opened the door to the main room of the forge. Emerging from the small door, the blacksmith saw that the room was quite empty, except for a few axes lying down on the ground. Nothing much to see here except for the wall that was full of blueprints for Hiccup's invention. Gobber sighed. Hiccup had been a brilliant inventor, inventing all sorts of weapons he never really got to use. There was a blueprint of an arrow launcher, the one that Hiccup claimed could fire arrows in rapid succession. There was another blueprint of a machine that was able to hurl axes over a long distance. Then there was Hiccup's latest invention; a bola-firing mechanism. Hiccup had proclaimed that it was able to shoot down Night Furies. He had brought it out and said he had shot down a Night Fury with it. It was also destroyed on that very same day. The crushed remains of the mechanism was found on the north side of the island, a few hundred meters to the east of the northern catapult tower. When the Viking who found it let Gobber take a look at it, he admitted that he had never seen anything like it before. It was way more advanced than anything the experienced blacksmith had ever seen. Even he had trouble reading and interpreting the blueprint. Had Hiccup really shot down the Night Fury? That would explain his mysterious disappearance from the village. He had said that the dragon had landed just off Raven Point. Could that be the place he went to? There were so many unanswered questions on the blacksmith's mind. Hiccup had been a good boy. He had listened to Gobber on many occasions. Although he had disobeyed several direct orders, he was still nonetheless a good boy. He had been forced to live a life of self-pity. Gobber couldn't blame Hiccup for that. I mean anyone would go mad if they self-pitied themselves for their entire lives. But there was something peculiar about that boy. Gobber recalled that earlier that day, Hiccup had managed to scare a full-grown Hideous Zippleback back into its cage. How in the name of Odin did he manage to do that? And how on earth did he know that eels could scare dragons away. Heck, even Stoick did not know that. If only they had an eel launcher, then taking care of the dragon raids would have been way easier.

Sighing, Gobber shook himself from his reverie and left the forge through the main entrance. The lock emitted a satisfying click which meant that it was shut. As he turned around, he thought that he had saw a pair of green eyes that belonged to a boy who was hiding just behind a wooden pole. The blacksmith froze and shook his head. When he looked at the wooden pole again, the green eyes had disappeared. The blacksmith deduced that he must have been so desperate to find Hiccup that he had hallucinated. Then, he decided that he would call it a day continued on his way back to his residence.

However, he did not know that the 'hallucination' was about to become real.

* * *

My heart skipped a beat when I saw Gobber locking up the door to the forge. Spotting the nearest hideout, which was the wooden pole of a torch, I strode across the stone path and hid behind it. Stealing a glance, my green eyes temporarily met with Gobber's blue eyes. I immediately recoiled and stood very still against the wooden pole, hoping against hope that he would just go away. However, given the blacksmith's inquisitive nature, I highly doubted my chances of getting away. I would probably be invited for a nice, long chat on where I went. I hoped that I would be able to avoid all the questioning, it would be the last thing I wanted to do.

_Please just go away, _I pleaded.

I risked my exposure to take a look of what was happening at the forge. I saw Gobber walking off to the right, up the hill and disappeared into a huge wooden house. I was relieved for a moment. But I still had some work to do. Taking out my notebook, I studied the design specifications. Making the saddle would be the hardest part of the project. Attaining the rope would be the easy part. Just go down to the harbor and grab one. The saddle would require a lot of work, probably hours of sewing, weaving and metal shaping.

Silently, I ran out of my hiding place and into the shelter next to the forge's entrance.

_Where's the key?_

Searching frantically for the group of keys, I realized that I had left them back at my house.

_Damn!_

I turned around and sprinted in the direction of my house. I might not be a very strong person but my speed and agility made up for that. Within a minute, I was at the front door of my house. Panting from the effort I had exerted in order to scale the slope, I rested against the wooden door. When I had gotten enough of my strength back, I opened the door, took off my fur vest and headed straight for my room. I remembered that the last time I had it with me was when I was constructing the tail fin for Toothless. So it must have been somewhere in my house. I practically turned the entire house upside-down in search of the key, only to find that it had been underneath the pillow all the time.

_Click!_

The lock emanated the satisfying sound that meant that it had been unlocked and I pushed it open. The forge was pitch-black, with the only source of light being the moonlight, which poured in from the outside. From the moonlight, I was able to find some spare candles. Once I had gotten them lit, I put them in strategic locations around the forge, providing ample light for me to start my actual work.

I referred to the sketches that were present in my notebook and started to draw out a rather rough sketch of how the saddle would look like. Basically, there would be a metallic frame that would provide the support needed. Then, it would be wrapped by a layer of leather. Once the frame is done, I would be able to start weaving the leather in such a way that they form interlocking layers of 'X's. Now, I had to figure out how I am supposed to anchor this saddle onto Toothless without getting him hurt. It took me quite awhile to figure it out but I did manage to figure it out. Leather straps would be hanging off the sides of the saddle. These straps would go round both Toothless' front arms, at the shoulder. Then, a metallic rung could go round the shoulders, joined at the center by a leather strap. All the leather supports that are supposed to anchor me to Toothless will be connected to the rung. Simple enough? Well, easier said than done. Now, I had to refer to the sketches and make a saddle accordingly. That would definitely _not_ be easy at all. I did a few enlargements to the sketches and consolidated all of them into one single sketch, just like I had done for the artificial tail fin. I added in notes where necessary and did some final touchups to the sketch.

_Done._

Now on to the practical part of the process.

I donned the blacksmith apron and got my hands busy. Taking down the sword from the shelf, I brought it over to the blower and started pumping oxygen in, significantly raising the temperature. Sparks flew from the red-hot rocks and the metal started to turn yellowish-reddish from the intense heat.

Once the temperature was hot enough, which I could tell from my years of experience at blacksmithing, I took the sword by its hilt and laced it on the metal shaping table. Sawing off the hilt, I was left with the red-hot metallic sword. Using a hammer and some specialized tools, I began the slow and tiring process of metal shaping, slowly working my way to the desired shape. I remembered that it had to curve upwards to the center. Once that was done, I set aside the wire framing and proceeded to doing the metallic rungs. I could estimate, from my sketches, how wide where Toothless' arms. I liked attention, detail and realism in my sketches, so you can be sure that they are never out of proportion.

I hauled another sword from the weapons rack and heated it again. This time, I shaped it to become circular, such that it would fit round the dragon's arms. I repeated the process again with another sword and I was done for the metallic part of the saddle. Now for the leather part. I consulted my drawings once again and discovered that it would not be enough if I anchored the entire saddle on just two metallic rungs that ran round the dragon's arms. I would need an extra support. But where? After much analysis I deduced that the best spot to place the other support was to connect it to the front of the saddle, which will be slotted underneath the biological armor plates and then the leather strap should be tied round Toothless' neck. So, with that obstacle out of the way, I was able to resume my work.

I first obtained the leather from a huge roll that was resting at the side of the workshop. Normally, the leather would be used for clothing, shoes and in the making of weapon handles, so there was a pretty high demand for the leather. I was lucky that there was still a large roll that existed in the forge, we would run out of leather every now and then.

I laid the huge roll down on the floor and pushed the entire roll along the floor. The friction between the leather and the ground would be able to keep the unrolled leather there, allowing me to unroll the entire roll of leather. Once I think that I had the desired amount of material at hand, I cut the wide strip of leather and bring it to the working table. After which, I went to take a needle and a spool of thread such that I could sew the leather together and loop the string around the metal support frame, making the entire saddle firmer.

With that in mind, I started cutting the leather into strips that were about the size of four fingers (y fingers). Then, I took the first strip, placed it on the metallic frame, and began weaving. Basically, I just took different strips of leather and crisscrossed them, with the wire frame as a support. So the end product was a rather elliptical-shaped saddle that looked like a giant snowshoe.

Now, I had to attach the leather straps. That was not easy either. I had to attach buckles here and there which meant more metal shaping. Finally, I was able to attach them by stitching them onto the side with a needle and a thread. Of course I had punched holes into the perimeter of the leather saddle using s claw hammer such that I could make the job easier.

With all that being done, I took a step back to admire my work. I tried to visualize how it would look and feel like if I was sitting on this saddle and riding on Toothless. It would have been fine, except for one thing. I decided that it would be more ergonomically friendly if I had added a sort of hump in the front of the saddle. It would be V-shaped, such that it would be much more comfortable. I immediately got to work on that. Carefully stacking the layers of leather together and binding them by using some sort of sticky adhesive that resembled tar. Then, I sewed the whole thing onto the saddle. Mission accomplished. I stood back, admiring my work.

_This saddle looks cool._

I formulated a plan in my head. All right. First thing in the morning, before dragon training or after dragon training, I would go to the harbor and steal a high tension rope. After that, I'll proceed to the cove and fit the saddle onto Toothless. I also reminded myself that I had to bring an entire basket of fish so as to provide the dragon with some distraction while I am busy attaching the saddle. Once that it done, I'll attach the rope to the tail fin and we'd do some test flights, together. After we're done with that, I'd collect some data that would help me evaluate the effectiveness of this method. If it is not effective, I'd have to improvise and come up with some fresh ideas.

I decided to call it a day and was about to turn and go back home to sleep when I noticed that the sun was rising just above the horizon, spilling its yellowish rays across the clouds.

_Holy mother of Thor, did I stay up _that_ long?_

Obviously I did. Deciding that I would catch a few winks, I headed back to my house, carrying along the saddle. I didn't even bother to wash up and I headed directly for my room. I fell asleep even before my head made any contact with the pillow.

* * *

"Get up, Hiccup!"

I jolted straight up in my bed. Someone was banging on my door. Before I could say anything the person announced quite loudly, "Hiccup! Where the Hel were you yesterday? You really got me worried for a long time! Come on! Get up, you're late for dragon training.!"

"All right, I'm coming down."

Grabbing my axe and shield, I made my way to the door to find a rather irritated and furious Gobber.

"Where did you disappear to yesterday? You weren't in the forge, you weren't in your house, you weren't in Astrid's house." Gobber enquired as we were walking down the slope in the direction of the Kill Ring.

_Uh-oh._

That was the worst question I could be asked right now. I had to protect Toothless from being discovered, so I had to think quick for an excuse. Thankfully, I was able to cook up quite a convincing tale for Gobber.

"Oh… er, about that… I had gained quite a few… er, how do you say that? Er, Viking… Viking… fans, ah, fans! I was trying to escape from my fans, you see. After what I did in the Kill Ring, I had gained a little popularity. So, I hid in the forest the whole day to avoid them."

Gobber arched an eyebrow. Okay, maybe it wasn't the best of excuse but it was worth the try. Luckily, Gobber did not pursue the matter. Which mean that I was safe… for now.

We crossed the last wooden bridge onto the huge granite platform that held the Kill Ring. Nothing changed much, and the Kill Ring was maze free. Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, Astrid and Fishlegs were gathered at the huge iron gate, wielding their weapons.

"How you doing, cousin?" Snotlout said in a rather contemptuous manner.

"I'm doing just fine." I answered tiredly, hoping that my cousin would just leave me alone. However, that chatterbox obviously had nothing better to do, and thus he continued with his relentless commenting and scorning.

"Hey, cousin. I heard that you have managed to down a Night Fury. How come it took you so long to kill it?"

Sometimes, Gobber could be really useful. And this situation was one of the times he would be useful.

"All right, lets get started!" he called out from behind me, sparing me the trouble of replying my cousin.

Lifting up the set of double iron gates, he welcomed us into the Kill Ring, although I was less than enthusiastic about entering the ring. I stole a quick glance at Astrid. Her face was like stone, with no emotions whatsoever on her face. She seemed to have noticed that I was staring at her and her cocked her head to her left. I quickly straightened my face and looked straight ahead of me. Gobber signaled for us to stop moving. I took up an empty spot next to Fishlegs. Hopefully he won't dump another load of information this time round.

"What will we be facing today?" Fishlegs enquired. Gobber simply chuckled and put his hand on the release lever. I saw the door. It was a iron gate with a triangular top. That could mean only one thing.

_Oh no. Please not the Nadder again._

"Today we'll face an old foe with a different approach." The blacksmith said.

"This session's topic is about battle formations. We Vikings normally utilize formations to tackle groups of dragons. However, since you are young, we'll just work with one dragon, for this instance, that would be the Nadder."

Astrid took in a deep breath, Ruffnut and Tuffnut looked like they were going to explode with excitement and anticipation, Fishlegs was constantly muttering under his breath (I had a sneaking suspicion he was reciting the dragon manual), and Snotlout looked like he was ready to run away from the ring as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Me? I think that I would be more on the nervous and excited side. I went through all the things that I have managed to experiment out on Toothless so far. The scratch under the chin would work, because the eel had worked for both the Night Fury and the Hideous Zippleback, so I guessed that the same would apply for the scratch.

"Astrid Hofferson would be the appointed leader. She'll be in charge of ordering you around. When I release this lever, I want you all to organize yourselves. Astrid will choose a battle formation and lead you. Follow her orders and you can't go wrong." Gobber paused for a while, before continuing.

"Are you ready? One… Two… Three…"

The lever was pushed downwards and out came the Nadder. Our training group scattered. Astrid went off to the left side of the ring while I went to the right.

"Ruff! Tuff! Get over here! Snotlout! Get to Hiccup's side! Fishlegs! You distract the Nadder!" Astrid barked.

Fishlegs started banging his hammer on his shield, creating the hollow thunking noise that would keep the Nadder sufficiently distracted.

"What is the shot limit for the Nadder?" Gobber asked.

"Seven!" answered Fishlegs.

"Correct, Fishlegs!" Gobber praised.

Our operation could have ended right there and then. Fishlegs waved his hands at Gobber to show that he had appreciated the praise for a few seconds. A few seconds might not sound much, but it meant the difference between success or failure. The Nadder recovered from its temporary disorientation and trained its eyes on Fishlegs.

BANG!

Fishlegs' shield and hammer got blown up by the fire that the Nadder had just sprayed, causing him to rush for the exit in a full panic mode. The Nadder seemed to have sensed the others who were closing in on it and it lashed out with its poisonous tail spikes. Our group was forced to duck behind their shields in order to escape the full brunt of the assault.

"Everyone! Scatter! Regroup later, I'll take care of this." Astrid said.

The group did as they were told, and they even outdone themselves. Snotlout rush out of the exit, while Ruffnut and Tuffnut ran to where Gobber was patrolling. That left Astrid and me in the ring. As Astrid was still hiding behind her shield, the Nadder took no notice of her. Instead, it set its sights on me.

_Oh damn._

The Nadder charged straight for me. It was only inches away from me when a cry rang out.

"YEEEAAAHHHHH!"

I recognized it as Astrid's voice. Sure enough, she was rushing straight towards the Nadder's neck, with her axe raised, the look of determination in her eyes. I dropped all my weapons onto the floor and scratched the Nadder on the side of its neck before I proceeded downwards to the spot below the chin.

_Crash!_

The Nadder fell flat on the floor, right in front of Astrid's face. She was stunned for a moment, processing what had just happened. It took her a while to get it right and she looked up at me with a kind of surprised look. Unable to think of anything else to say or do, I gave her a kind of an awkward smile. She stared at me for a little while more before shaking her head in frustration and muttering something under her breath. She then promptly turned away from me and stormed out of the ring.

"Good job, Hiccup! That was spectacular!" announced Gobber. I turned around to see the entire training group gathered at the exit, looking dumbstruck.

"Okay? Are we done? I have to er, go." I said.

I walked out of the ring and no sooner did I walk two steps did I get swarmed by my training group.

"That was wicked!" commented Tuffnut.

"Totally awesome!" supplied Ruffnut.

"How did you do that?" said my obnoxious cousin.

"That was totally cool. You know, in order to make a Nadder collapse in that manner, you'd have to have plus fifteen…"

I had enough of this madness, so I decided to come up with an excuse to escape.

"Ah, I left my axe back at the ring. I'll catch up with you"

I slipped through the group and made my way back to the Kill Ring. Actually, I really did leave my axe at the ring. Upon arriving, I saw that Gobber was putting the Nadder back into its cage. I spotted my axe and shield lying on the ground and I picked them up. Since I wasn't going to the forge, I would take a detour back home, put my axe and shield, take the saddle and the rope with me, and set off for the cove just off Raven Point.

"Gobber!" I called out to the blacksmith who was closing the enclosure gates. He turned around to face me.

"Hiccup. I didn't see you come in."

"Gobber, I have to hide from my fans again. So, don't expect me to be back by sundown."

I expected Gobber to at least question me about where I was going to, but he seemed to trust me enough to let me go on my own.

"Go ahead and hide. Just don't come back too late." the blacksmith said.

_You bet I will.

* * *

_

"Toothless." I said as I approached the Night Fury. He looked at me with both eyes, showing signs of suspicion and curiosity.

"I've got a surprise for you."

I presented to Toothless the custom-made leather saddle. He stared at the saddle for a moment before crouching all all fours and bounding away. Oh no, it was the tail shifting stuff all over again.

_Come here you little pest._

"Hey!" I exclaimed as the dragon ran at a stead pace, with his tongue lolling out. I chased after him while holding the saddle high up in the air.

"Toothless! Come back here this instance!"

This dragon was going to drive me nuts one day. Here I am trying to help him regain his ability to fly and he takes it so lightly, still having the cheek to fool around.

"Come _on_, Toothless!"

Toothless was still not responding to my requests, let alone commands. If I were going to spend the whole day trying to seek the cooperation of the dragon, we would not be getting anywhere soon, let along fly. Well, anyways, desperate times call for desperate measures. I stopped running and called out to the dragon.

"Toothless! Do you want a scratch?"

The dragon seemed to have understood what I had just said and was soon in front of me, eager for a scratch. Smiling, I set aside the saddle and started by rubbing Toothless along his neck. Then my rubs evolved into scratches. My fingers slowly moved downwards, towards that one spot that will reduce a Night Fury into a purring kitten.

WHUMP!

Toothless fell flat on his belly, purring contently and was basically enjoying himself. This gave me the time I needed to put the saddle on.

"All right. This buckle goes here. That strap goes there…"

I was suddenly interrupted when Toothless rolled to his side, still purring. Seeing the opportunity to fit the rung, I clasped it on. Now how do I get to Toothless' other arm? I decided that I would tickle the pressure point. I tried and it worked. The dragon was trembling from the pleasure, and when I prodded the point again, he involuntarily rolled over to the other side, leaving his other arm exposed. I clasped it on as well. After a few minor adjustments, I felt that it was all right and set to go. Now all I had to do is to wait for the dragon's wave of pleasure to end, then we could get down to some serious work.

After waiting for about two minutes, Toothless finally got his act back. He was looking happier than before and had a look that said 'I'm ready.'

I smiled. If he was ready, then I would definitely be ready as well.

"If you're ready, then I'm ready." I said.

Moving to the artificial tail fin, I took out the high tension rope and tied a knot to one of the metallic extensions, securing the rope there. Then, I held the other end of the rope and proceeded to climb up onto the saddle. I held up the rope in my left hand and patted the side of Toothless' head.

"Let's do this. All right, bud?"

Toothless snapped his jaws together and jerked his head downwards.

"I'll take that as a 'yes' then"

The dragon extended his wings. He leaned backwards and launched himself into the air. I was pulled along with him and together we soared into the air. Unable to control my excitement, I let out a whoop of joy. Then, remembering what I was here for, I pulled on the rope and the tail fin opened. Now, we'll do a couple of maneuvers mid air to test how fast I would be able to control the rope.

"Here goes nothing."

I gave it a hard yank and...

* * *

End of Chapter 8

Yay! Congratulations readers, you've passed the test of endurance.

Leave a review and tell me how I did. Have a nice day!


	9. Design Improvements

**Disclaimer:** Do I have to say this? Of course I don't own 'How To Train Your Dragon' for all those who do not know. For all those who know, ignore the sentence behind.

Well, this is Chapter 9 guys/gals! We are halfway there! I do sincerely apologize for the very, very long update. I just noticed that I have not updated for two weeks! I hope you haven't given up hope. I do notice that I have rearranged the order in which the scenes during 'See You Tomorrow' are shown. This is to ensure that the story flows better. Well, I hope it did.

Let's get on with the chapter, shall we? **Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Nine: Design Improvements

* * *

When I gave the rope a hard yank, I had expected something bad to crop up. That always happened. There isn't a time where I was experimenting with my inventions and I did not indirectly cause disaster. The village of Berk has plenty of evidence to support that, not to mention a load of witnesses.

What I did not expect was for Toothless to jerk violently to the left.

It was so sudden, I did not have the time to react. The dragon shifted and I plummeted straight down.

Into the freezing-cold lake, making some of the fish scatter in terror in the process.

_Damn!_

Therefore, the test flight ended with a very wet me and a very unhappy dragon, who happened to crash into the great, gnarled tree headfirst. I dragged myself to the edge of the lake in a sloppy fashion. Shivering from the cold, I collapsed, face-first, onto the ground, soaking the ground around me with water.

This was definitely not going well. At least for me.

The rest of the day passed by with me drying myself beside a ready-made fire and Toothless grunting in a dissatisfied manner. When I addressed him, I saw that he was scratching at the metallic rungs and trying in vain to get the saddle off.

"You want to get it off?" I asked.

The dragon whined as if to say 'yes'. Sighing, I walked over to him and started the process of unbuckling everything. I removed the rungs first before finally detaching the saddle. Toothless gave me a thankful purr and settled down on the ground. I frowned at the saddle. What could have gone wrong?

_Perhaps it is too solid._

I'll have to reconsider the design of the saddle if I were to continue riding on Toothless. I thought of all the possible saddle designs. It had to be flexible and comfortable at the same time. But how? I looked at the saddle again. The metal frame was the reason it was so solid. What would happen if I had removed it?

My inner genius for inventing stuff kicked in, right on schedule.

_I could lay the pieces of leather, together and crisscross them, but this time I'll sew the pieces together! That would make it much more flexible._

I thought of different ways that could make it much more comfortable.

_Perhaps I could stick some sheep fur underneath the saddle._

That would work. Everyone in the village knows how comfortable sheep fur can be.

_I could also line some sheep fur on the side of the rung that is in contact with Toothless' hide._

With these ideas in mind, I grabbed my notebook, which was, luckily, placed beside a boulder before I got soaked. That meant that all my sketches were intact.

_To-dos_

_Create new saddle._

_Add sheep fur to metal rung_

_New saddle specifications_

_Materials needed: Leather and some thread_

_Instructions for new saddle_

_Do not create metal frame, overlap the leather strips and sew them together instead._

_Handgrip needed_

Smiling to myself, I snapped the notebook shut and lay it down on the ground beside me. Tonight, I would get back to the forge and create the new saddle. It is to be hoped that Gobber would just leave me alone this time round.

I laid my back against the ground, looking skyward. Then I remembered how easily I had fallen off. That was going to need some attention. If I were to fall into the lake every time I go for a test flight then I would practically be wasting my time. I opened my notebook, picked up the charcoal stick and added a note.

_Note_

_Attach a rope to the saddle. Rope should anchor rider to the saddle._

Contented with that, I laid back and relaxed. Very soon, my eyelids drooped and I was plunged straight into the depths of slumberland.

However, sleep was mysterious. You don't know when it happens. You just unknowingly fall asleep and then, bang! The rays of the morning sun creeps in through your eyelids and you awake to a fresh new morning. And that was exactly what happened to me. Seems that I had slept overnight at the cove. Brilliant, eh?

A blast of warm air hit my face and my eyelids looked red. Wait… why were they red? Soon, the mysterious source of heat begun to grow in intensity, and I was forced to crack open my eyelids.

And at that point in time, I really wished that I didn't.

All of a sudden, my eyes were engulfed with a white light so bright, it stung. And it stung hard. Instinctively, I shut my eyelids once again and put my left hand over my eyes. Did I mention that I was left-handed? I guess I didn't. What sort of _thing_ could have created such an intense light? After a moment of pondering, it hit me that I was looking directly at the sun. Not a very good move. Opening my eyes once again, I found out that I could see perfectly, except for an angry color burn that distorted my visual color perception. I had to flutter my eyelids several times before I finally got rid of it. Did I tell you how much I hate color burns?

Looking around, I saw that I was still in the cove, and that Toothless was still alive. Good so far. Except for one thing. As far as I could recall, it was evening when I fell asleep, or rather when I fell into the icy-cold lake for the second time. And now, the sun was halfway across the sky. It was also shining with a glaring intensity, radiating heat in waves, which most probably meant that it was afternoon. How was it possible that the sun had gone back? That defied the laws of nature as well as logic. But, hey, since when has the rules of logic and nature ever been valid ever since I bonded with Toothless? As far as I could remember, no. It took me quite a while before I figured it out.

I had slept overnight in the cove, and probably Gobber was worrying about me all night long. Can't blame him though. I had promised him that I would return to the village of Berk before nightfall, and now I had broken that promise. He would most likely be preparing my funeral procession already. Huh. Like anyone would do that. The villagers would rather prefer me dead than alive. Because, to them, I was just an annoying little runt that does nothing than to wreak the village during dragon raids. Yup, that was just about it.

And speaking about dragons, I seemed to have forgotten something important. _Really _important.

"Oh my Odin! I am going to be late for dragon training!" I exclaimed as the realization hit me like a wave. If I didn't show up for the classes, Gobber would suspect that something was up, and I did not want him poking his nose into my secret dragon friendship. That would be disastrous, especially when the blacksmith was a very close friend of my dad's. I would be screwed if he found out. Grabbing the experimental test saddle and its other components, I bid farewell to the dragon, who was currently attempting to secure a fish in his jaws, but failed to do so. He snapped his jaws in frustration as I did so.

"See ya tomorrow, Toothless! Gotta rush!"

With that, I rushed out of the cove; the metallic buckles clanging as they hit the ground. It was a tough climb up the small little pebble road, and it really didn't help matters that I was carrying two four-pound metallic rungs and a solid saddle. They made for a major inconvenience. But after that little struggle, I managed to slip out of the huge opening that led to the main forest with little obstruction. All the time, I was thinking about Gobber, and how he would bombard me with all his questions. One thing about Gobber was that he was very persevering (or is it stubbornness?). He would not give up on something, if his stories were true.

Running along the bushes, I had reached the edge of the forest. Dangerously close to the town square. It was bustling with activities, as like many town squares. I guessed that it would be the best if I avoided the crowded areas. Carrying a saddle and two rungs would attract far too much attention. Mostly because I am not usually seen doing these sort of things. And attention was bad. Especially when I am rushing to meet someone, or rather meeting a group of people.

As I neared my house, I spotted Gobber on the front door, knocking away and calling my name repeatedly. I stopped dead in my tracks. It would not be wise to just appear behind Gobber with all these equipment in my hands. He would suspect too much and I'd be screwed. On the other hand, I had nowhere else to go. Should I go visit the forge first and lay down the equipment? Or should I leave them under a tree and come back later? In all the desperation, a memory of me leaving the house through the back door surfaced, and a plan got formulated in my head almost immediately. Grinning, I silently made my way to the back of my house, hoping that the blacksmith would be too occupied with the door that he'd not bother with me.

I pushed opened the back door using my left foot. It easily swung open, revealing the entrance to the living hall. Slipping inside quietly, I lay down the equipment beside a wooden beam underneath the wooden steps. I planned on keeping it there until after the dragon training session with Gobber was over. There was still a consistent rapping on the wooden door. I shook the dust off my shoulder and straightened my clothes. They were, thankfully, dry. Which meant that I would not have to explain another mystery to the blacksmith. I picked up my axe and shield, making sure that they were in proper working condition. Deciding that I looked presentable enough, I walked up to the front door, behind which was the blacksmith who was currently uttering threats.

"Hiccup! If yeh don't com' ou', I'l drag yeh out myself!" the blacksmith threatened.

I decided that it would be too dangerous to waste any more time and I opened the front door. Gobber looked furious. I can't blame him though. If I had to wait an hour before the house owner I wanted to meet opened their front door, I'd be pretty pissed off. He arched an eyebrow as he saw me.

"What hav' yeh been doin' up there?" he enquired.

I knew that there was no getting out of this one. I searched desperately for an answer that might just satisfy the blacksmith enough such that I would not arouse any suspicion. It was very hard though. When you have a person who is five times bigger than you are staring down at you, demanding for answers, you can't think of anything at all. Luckily, I had the gift of being quick-minded, and that would prove to be very useful in situations such as these. An idea hit me and I immediately utilized it.

"I had a bad case of diarrhea."

It might have sounded pretty lame, but Gobber accepted it anyway. He nodded his head and patted me on the shoulder.

"Feelin' better now?"

I stared at him for a while, completely caught off guard by his question. Why would he be asking if I am feeling better when I was in the pink of health? Then I remembered. I had just stated that I was having diarrhea. So, intent to keep up the act, I answered, " Yeah. I'm feeling loads better right now."

That was when Gobber asked the inevitable.

"So how does tha' explain why yeh were missin' fer the whol' of yesterday nigh'?"

_Oh, damn._

I wasn't prepared to answer that question yet. Mainly because I haven't got plenty of excuses that I could use for situations like this. I figured that diarrhea wasn't going to be enough to explain my disappearance for an entire night. I don't think that even the most serious bout of diarrhea was able to achieve that. Gobber relentlessly pressed on, which wasn't really helping matters.

"Yeh can't fool me on this one. So tell me: where were yeh last nigh'?"

If there was to be any chance that I was going to survive this one, I'd have to think of a suitable excuse, fast. The gears in my head were turning and I clenched my jaws together. I was running out of hope. Diarrhea was definitely out. Working at the forge was definitely out, because Gobber would have been checking on the forge every thirty minutes. Dragon training would also be out as that would be highly unbelievable. So, what else? I couldn't risk revealing the secret about Toothless. That would be suicidal. Not to mention breaking about fifteen Viking laws. No way I was going to reveal that. Then, an idea struck me I thought that it was perfect.

"I went for a walk in the forest at night. Just wanted to clear my head and think things through. You know, the air's fresher in the forest." I reasoned. It was now up to Gobber to accept this reason, or to reject it and continue pressing me for answers. I really hoped that he would just accept it. I really couldn't think of any more excuses. To my amazement (and relief), the village blacksmith merely nodded his head and led me towards the direction of the Kill Ring. Relived, I exhaled and silently thanked Odin for being so kind. I had just dodged an arrow. I was safe… for now.

As we approached the Kill Ring, my obnoxious cousin and the twins rushed in to join my side. I sighed. Sometimes, you just want to avoid being in the limelight. Especially with your fans around. Somehow, Fishlegs managed to squeeze into the crowd.

"How did you make the Nadder collapse just like that?" Snotlout was asking.

"Do you think that you could show me a few pointers?" Fishlegs asked.

The twins were wrestling with each other, so they pretty much left me alone.

Looking beyond Fishlegs' shoulder, I spotted Astrid sulking in a corner. She was wielding her axe in a frightening manner and was staring at it, face as black as thunder. I wondered what might have gone wrong with her. Hadn't I proved myself during the last dragon training session? One part of me could not help nut think:

_You'll see, Astrid. You'll realize that I am much tougher than I look._

"All righ', let's get started!" Gobber said, lifting the iron gates and ushering us in. This time I really hoped that we would not be facing the Nadder once again. No thanks, I've had enough of that for a lifetime. There was a certain air of tension as Gobber announced the plan for today.

"Today, we'll be looking at speed and accuracy."

_Accuracy? Why would we need a dragon to practice accuracy? Can't we all use target dummies?_

Gobber smiled and I knew that he was up to no good. He either had a really dangerous dragon up his sleeve or he had other plans in store for us. Neither would end in a good way. He walked to a gate that was marked 'EXTREMELY DANGEROUS' and it was rattling as he put his hand on the lever. I could feel the people tense up beside me. I found myself tensing up too. Gobber gave us another smirk, revealing his silver tooth.

"Meet the Terrible Terror." He announced evilly. Pushing the lever all the way down, the thick wooden bar went up and I braced myself for the horrifying Terrible Terror to burst out of the door, spewing tons of terrible fire. At least the way the name suggested it would. But it never came. Instead, there was a creaking sound and out came a dragon the size of a…

_Rat?_

Tuffnut laughed and pointed at the small dragon. It was like a miniature version of a real dragon. With a green-red coloration and a pair of yellow eyes, you would not expect this lil' thing to do much damage. And with those cute little horns, it certainly did not look like a 'Terrible Terror'. Tuffnut could be heard mocking the reptile.

"Ha! It's like the size of my-"

We never got to know the size of his whatever, for in the next moment, the Terrible Terror pounced on him, attempting to rip his nose off. The moment Tuffnut got pinned onto the ground, his hat fell off, and a huge number of flies escaped into the atmosphere.

_Good job on cleaning your hair, Tuffnut._

The others seemed reluctant to approach Tuffnut and lend him a helping hand because of the flies. I knew that he was pretty much done for, until Gobber comes down and helps him out. But I don't see him doing that right now. That left me to help my friend. But how?

I don't know what made me do it but I accidentally tilted my shield against the sunlight, facing it right in the direction of the Terror. The metallic part of the shield reflected the sunlight and cast a spot of light that flashed across the Terror's eye. Then, the unbelievable happened.

The Terrible Terror responded to the spot of light.

The shine seemed to have caught its attention, causing it to relieve it bite temporarily on Tuffnut's nose. A stream of blood ran down his nose and I winced. That's gotta hurt. Determined to test that out, I tilted my shield against the sunlight again and faced it in the direction of the Terror. A dot of light materialized on its eye and I got its attention.

"Oh. I am hurt! I am _very_ much hurt!" Tuffnut complained.

I looked around and saw that three quarters of the ring was bathed in sunlight. The remaining one quarter was covered with shadows, and the Terrible Terror's enclosure was one of them. I calculated the best route that I could take and focused the sunlight on the ground in front of the Terror. It scrabbled the ground and tried to catch it, but it always managed to slip out from under its paw… or so it seemed.

"Wow, he's better than you ever were." I heard Tuffnut say.

I finally got the Terror to crawl back into its enclosure through the latch (ah, so that was what it's for). Once it was in, I shut the opening and looked up at the rest of the group, all of whom had surprised looks plastered on their faces, with the exception of Astrid, who was looking very angry indeed. Gobber asked us to gather around and announced, "All right! Hiccup righ' here has done very well! Give 'im a round of applause."

The only person who did not clap was Astrid. I felt a little disappointed with that actually. She had been the only person I had wanted to impress as of now. When Gobber dismissed us, Astrid stormed out of the ring like the last time. Fishlegs stayed back to bombard me with his questions; most of which did not even make any sense to me.

"How did you do that? Did you have like a plus 18 Attack Range? Or did you summon a-"

Whatever he was trying to say, I wasn't interested at all. So, I did the right thing and silenced him, a very clear indication that I wanted him to stop. If he didn't stop, it would mean that he is either deaf or dumb. Fortunately, he wasn't either, so he shut up his mouth and bid me farewell. Gobber then walked up to me and patted me on the shoulder. When he spoke, he spoke with a rather amused tone.

"Yeh father will be proud when he hears about this."

I was surprised for a moment as I looked up at him.

"You are going to tell him?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"If he comes back from the expedition."

Good point.

I had not seen my father for nearly five days already. And I am beginning to doubt that he would ever return from this expedition. Normally he would spend four days getting lost and getting back to Berk. So far, things weren't looking well for him.

"I'll be at the forge, then." I declared.

"Sure."

Running out of the Kill Ring, I made my way back to my house first, taking with me the saddle and the metal rungs. Then, I proceeded to the forge by the sea in order to carry out the necessary improvements. And it was in need of some serious makeovers.

When I got to the forge, it was nearly evening. Most of the people should be leaving this place alone by this time of the day. Hopefully, the people would leave me in peace until I could get the project done. Laying down my equipment on the wooden table, I immediately got to work. Since the previous saddle had been too solid, I had already proposed a new saddle design; one that allowed for much more flexibility. Hopefully that would work out. Opening my notebook and putting it on the table, I revised the plans. It would follow the same basic design of the older one; only without the metal frame, allowing for more flexibility. Then, there is supposed to be a handgrip in the front of it all.

It was time to get busy.

Using the same roll of leather, I repeated the same steps that I took to make the older version of the saddle; only that this time I would bypass the step where I had to make the metal framing. That saved me a lot of work. I managed to put together the saddle in less than twenty minutes. It was in the same basic shape as the previous one. Now for the handgrip. I took a different coloured piece of leather and cut it to fit the top of the saddle. Once that was done, I simply sewed it to the existing saddle. Mission accomplished. A job well done. Nice and simple.

Now on to the rope.

That was the easy part. Now, I had to find a way to allow the hook to be attached to the saddle. I could not sew it on because I had to be able to come off the saddle after whatever testing sessions with Toothless. Then, I remembered how the ropes that were used to control the boats were attached. They were connected via a knot. I figured that if I had a metal hook to hook onto a metallic extension that would become part of the saddle, it would work. I tried that out.

First, I plucked out a screw from a shield that was lying around the workshop. Then, using the blower, I heated the screw until it was hot enough to shape it. The coals glowed red-hot and sparks flew each time a new supply of air is being pumped into the system. Soon, the screw became camouflaged against the background coals and experience told me that it was hot enough. Using a long picker, I carefully picked up the glowing screw and placed it on the worktable. I flattened the screw with a hammer. Then, I picked up the screw and held it in place with a metal contraption. Following that, using a long stoker pole used to stoke fires, I placed it in the middle of the flattened screw and applied some pressure.

Finally, after some time of pressure applying, the stoker pole pierced through the red-hot metal. All that was left to be done was to do some refinements and let it cool before placing it onto the saddle.

I got a rope from a box in the corner of the forge and a small hook that seemed to be able to fit the small ring that I've moulded. I took that too. Then, after some adjustments, I got the hook onto the end of the rope. After which, I put the ring on the saddle and hooked up the rope to it. Now I would need to find a way to secure the hook onto myself. Simple enough. I could create a riding vest. Taking some spare dark leather from a big spool in the attic, I started work on it. I intended to do a simple one in the shape of an 'X' with a metal plate where the leather straps intersect.

Ten minutes was spent getting the leather part done. Thirty minutes was spent getting the metallic part done. After which, I attached a hook ring similar to the one on the saddle and another hook on the rope and I hooked the free end to my vest. It fit perfectly. I gave the leather saddle, which was currently hanging on the wall, a good shake to test it out. The rope did not fall off. Perfect.

Smiling to myself, I could not wait for the next day to arrive. I was already dying of the excitement. Taking the newly made saddle with me, I was about to leave for my house when I forgot something important.

The sheep fur.

That was to ensure that Toothless would be comfortable while wearing the saddle. I certainly do not want to get flung off the back of a Night Fury because he felt uncomfortable. I have been there before and I did not enjoy it at all. I left the improved saddle at the wall and ran towards the market. That was where I was going to get my sheep fur. Easily.

"1 whole sheep fur." I said to the butcher five minutes later. He snorted contemptuously at me and proceeded to unhang an entire sheet of the white fluffy stuff. The butcher was a huge Viking, with blue eyes and a short beard. He was stout and always wielded a butcher's knife with him everywhere he went. He was one of those typical Vikings that you would picture in your mind.

"15 silver notches." He said almost lazily.

I took out the coil of silver out of my pocket and counted the number of notches. Once I arrived at notch number fifteen, I took out my pocket knife and cut it, handing the piece of silver to the butcher while keeping the knife and the silver coil back into my pocket. The butcher promptly handed me the sheet of sheep fur and snorted at me again.

"What do ya need so much fur fer?" he asked.

"Well, its none of your business." I retorted as I made my way back to the forge. Now that I had the sheep fur, I could get back to business.

Five minutes later, I was at the forge, placing the new saddle over the sheep fur and made incisions on the fur, outlining the shape of the saddle. Once that was done, I took the adhesive from the corner of the workshop and glued it to the bottom of the saddle. I did the same with the metal rung and finally, the tedious task of redesigning the saddle was done. Although I know that this would not be the last time I would ever be in the forge redesigning the saddle. This was a complex one that I had never tried before, and I am just trying to adjust the design according to the dragon's needs, not mine. Satisfied, I brought the entire contraption back home.

_Toothless, I've got a surprise for you._

* * *

End of Chapter 9.

By the way, Vikings used silver and gold to trade, usually silver. They kept the silver in the form of a wound up coil that would be worn as an arm ring, that had notches in it. When they needed to buy something, they would slip the ring off, cut off as much as they needed to with their knife, and then slip the ring back on. The adhesive was a form of glue made of bitumen, bark pitch and animal grease. It is actually a type of Roman superglue, but I've taken the liberty to get it into the story.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and leave a review! :)

Stay tuned.


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